The singer Adele is very well known, not my favourite music, but her achievements have been spectacular and is obviously very popular.
A story at the height of her fame says a lot, when preparing for her Las Vegas residency, she was asked how much she would be practicing, after all, “she knew all the songs very well” and she is already at the top of her game.
Her reply was “100 hours per song”, which averaged a total of 2400 hours of preparation for the entire show “just to get it right”..
The lesson is that even someone at the top of her game, at world class level, still prepares for shows more intensely than probably anyone else in their field.
Her talent is huge, but the consistency of her performances and reviews of her shows are only so good due to the faultless preparation (and her accompanying band of course), she never skips “the hard yards”..
When I first began my business, 500 thousand businesses on average started per year, BUT 500 thousand businesses also folded every year too, the lesson was humbling.
Everyone does their best first year of business, but what happens in year 3 if you are lucky to be still doing it?
If you are in year 10, year 20 or more even in business, chances are you have followed some of Adele’s advice of constantly trying to get better, constantly refining your craft, taking absolutely nothing for granted and ALWAYS trying to get better.
Whilst others in business for 5 minutes may concentrate on their latest leased new car to somehow “impress people”, the best way to survive in business is to constantly invest in your craft and constantly look to refine it, until your value to others becomes undeniable.
Whatever you want to be good at, putting the work in relentlessly is vital, but it’s also vital you become better through practice, being prepared to learn all the time, accept your never know it all and you are humble enough to learn well off others, who may be doing it much better than you are currently, the best in every field are life-long learners, and perform their craft in service of others, and always without any ego.