10,000 Hours

I got this idea after reading one of Chase Jarvis' posts here. It talks about how to "make it" as a photographer and some of the requirements to get there. The simple two-part answer...

1.) Be undeniably good - Be so good they can't ignore you

2.) Dedicate at least 10,000 hours to whatever it is you're looking to master

The second point is what I'm trying to track - not that after exactly 10,000 hours I'll be a master, maybe far from it or maybe I can settle at 8,000 hours and call myself a "pro". The point is that it'll be some sort of metric to how I'm moving along.

Historically speaking, I can't really nail down how many hours I've spent becoming a master, but over say the past 10 years through workshops, gereral interest, and varoius 'learning' I'll put meyself down for 2,000 hours - just to start somewhere, and feel good that I'm 20% there.

So on the extreme side, I could work 10 hrs a day and be a "master" in just over two years. More realistically, while still having a day job, working on photography say 20 hrs a week, I'll be a "master" in just under eight years. With the ability and drive to spend more time each year on photography as I progress, my time to becoming a pro seems to be somewhere between 2 and 8 years.