Malcolm Gladwell: Meaningful Work through Passion, not Genius

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Speaker: It's an idea that says that when you put forth effort, you get reward. When you throw your heart and mind and soul into something, you get something back. Now, in my book I call that notion, that belief that effort brings reward, meaningful work. And when you look at the lives of people who are really successful, what you see over and over again is this idea of meaningful work is imbedded in their consciousness. You know, I tell the story of the book of the Beatles. Everybody knows about the Beatles. They come here in 1964 and the British Invasion. The most interesting thing about the Beatles is what happened to them before they came to America. In 1960, 1959 when they were just kids, they went -- they were invited to go to Hamburg, in Germany, to be the house band at a strip club. And they went there, and they stayed there for months on end. And seven days a week, they played eight-hour sets night after night in this strip club, right? And over the course of that extraordinary crucible, that experience of playing, they taught themselves how to be a great band, right? In fact, we know -- we think now, that by the time the Beatles came to America, they had played together as a live band 1200 times. We could go to all of the clubs on Friday night in San Francisco where all the promising, young bands are playing, and I submit to you, you would not find a single band that has played together 1200 times, right? It just doesn't happen. So what made the Beatles special? What made them special is that they were willing to play together 1200 times, willing to play eight-hour sets, seven nights a week, for months at a stretch. And why were they willing? Because they believed in the notion of meaningful work. They had an opportunity to throw their heart and mind into something and get some back. And that made all the difference in the world. You know, I also -- I interviewed Bill Gates for my book, and I was -- because I was really curious about what happened to him as a kid because, you know, he has -- as any of you will know -- he has this extraordinary experience as a 13-year old. In 1969, he goes to his school in eighth grade, and they have a Teletype machine hooked into a mainframe, which allows him to do real-time programming at the age of 13 in 1969. Those of you who know your computer history will know that nobody was doing real-time programming in 1969, let alone 13-year olds, right? If you had access to a computer at all, you were using those -- remember those clumsy old computer cards, which meant you could do one run every, you know, whatever it was, three days. He was doing the real thing from the age of 13 on. And how did he respond to that opportunity? He threw his heart and mind into it. He never left that room, right? He ran up computer bills like you would not believe because remember computer time was incredibly expensive then. He told me a story that he -- when he was in 11th grade, Paul Allen, who was his classmate, right, found out that there was a mainframe in the health center at the University of Washington that was free, wasn't being used between 2 AM and 6 AM on weekday mornings. And so he would go to bed at, like, 10:00. Pretend to his parents was getting an early night. And set his alarm clock for 1:30. Sneak out, you know, sneak out the window. Walk two miles to the University of Washington in pitch black, and program from two until six, right? In fact, he told me one of the reasons he gives so much to the University of Washington now is he feels guilty about stealing so much computer time from them. The other hilarious thing is his mother, years later, said, you know, when she heard that story for the first time, she was like, "You know, we always wondered why it was so hard to get him out of bed in the morning." Now, why does he do that? Why does he go to some extraordinary -- those extraordinary lengths? Because he has the right attitude, right? He was able to capitalize on his ability, not because he's some genius, or -- you know, I think he's really, really smart. Is he Einstein? I don't know. That's not what sets him apart. What sets him apart is that he had a belief in meaningful work. He was willing to throw his heart and mind into something because he knew he'd get something back. And that attitude is what allowed him to develop his abilities in the way that he did.

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