Calculating the Gap Between Good and Great
It’s hard to visualize the difference between good and great, particularly when it comes to our own success. Unquestionably, we live in a world where overnight success headlines dominate. This causes us to hold ourselves to unrealistic expectations and makes us think going from good to great is trivial.
However, the truth is that the gap between good and great is not trivial at all. In fact, it’s the opposite. It’s the gap between beginner and good that’s trivial when you compare it to the gap between good and great.
For comparison purposes, let’s start with the research of author and skills acquisition expert Josh Kaufman. His research suggests that you can go from knowing nothing to being “reasonably good” at just about anything in 20 hours. Obviously, this number requires context. 20 hours of practicing the guitar is not the same as 20 hours of practicing medicine. But for the sake of argument, 20 hours will serve as the numerator in our equation.
On the other hand, renowned psychology professor and “expert on experts” Anders Ericsson’s research suggests it takes roughly 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert. For this exercise, I will equate this “expert” label as being great. So, 10,000 hours becomes the denominator in our equation.
Given these variables, you can then calculate that 20/10,000 = 0.002 or .2%. If these numbers are somewhat accurate, this means that the work it takes to be good is less than 1% of the total work it will take to be great. In other words, you still have 99% of the work in front of you once you make it from beginner to good if you want to be great.
Don’t let this discourage you. Instead, simply realize the reason why great is great is because so few people are willing to invest the time. This is good news for you if you have the grit to make it. Being good is crowded, but there is plenty of room for the few pursuing great.