Well, let us
adopt the saying “No one is born a thief, but life makes them so”, to gently
modify it to suit our purpose, “no one born an expert, life makes them so”. It
takes much more than hard work and determination to become an expert in a
field. It takes aid from devoted teachers, great amount of support from the
family, and a quality time and energy spend in continuous practice.
Echoing
Thomas Alva Edison’s quote, “Genius is 1%inspiration and 99%
perspiration.” :
When the
goal is to become an expert in a field, no bother should be given to the
sacrifices made or the hard paths traversed. Concern bout the self can never
help anyone achieve anything hence the
best option is to lose yourself in your struggle and to become a part of that
strife. Endless struggles and continuous stretch of self-assessment and self-correction
claims the life of a person determined to become an expert.
So, what is
it that you consider to be expertise? Mere knowledge in a field can never be
explained as expertise. It is more of a talent or a skill that has been
developed overtime. Experience and hard work plays a good factor. But, in effective words, expertise cannot be
claimed by oneself. It is an honor bestowed on us by others. Individual
accounts of expertise can never be relied upon and hence it is always best to
go with the general idea of the person. This takes not any kind of prejudices,
but actual demonstrations of the talent or the skill. The performance of an
expert comprises not just the knowledge concerning the field, but also a
superior quality performance is expected to be delivered by an expert. One’s
expertise in a field is always a measurable entity as the quantum of knowledge
reveals.
When you are
on the way to preparing yourself to become an expert in a concerned field, the
first thing that should be included in your routine is a quality time spend in
practice. This practice is to focus on areas you are weak and to gradually
develop in you all the qualities that is to be absolute necessity to become an
expert in the field. Improving our skills, focusing on improving the range of
our performance, and negating any areas of below average performance is another
necessity.
The words
by Sam Snead ( Golfing Champion) is well
adoptable at this point of the article: “It is only human nature to want to
practice what you can already do well, since it is a hell of a lot less work
and a hell of a lot more fun.”
The most
important thing to be remembered when you are on the run to be an expert is
that it takes time, a lot of time. Years put into practice, years of
exploration, correction, outstanding performance, earning a reputation, all
this can never happen in a day. It takes years; no amount of age is short to
become an expert.
The next
measure into becoming an expert is to have someone supervise you, to guide you
and to correct you on a strict basis. One person may not be able to help you
with everything connected to your field; in that case resorting to more guides
will not be a bad idea. Expert coaches help accelerate the learning process.
They may be harsh at times, but pricking remarks and ruthless criticism is the
only thing that can mould out a better you, so accept them seriously. Self
evaluation is always a good option, but the knowledge that you are never
perfect will be the only things that will keep you going.
Reference [K Anders Ericsson, Michael J Prietula & Edward T Cokely ; Harvard Business Review, July-August 2007 ]
Further
Reading: Deep Smarts - Dorothy
Leonard
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