My son, like many of yours, has a personal goal of playing baseball at the highest level - in the Majors. Millions of boys have this dream, but there is a heck of a lot of work - years and years of work - between youthful daydreams and one day stepping onto the diamond in the Bigs. The reality is that very few ever make it to the Majors and even more rare is the player that becomes a legend. Talent is one component of Big League success, but even more important is the sheer quantity of sweaty work behind the scenes. And according to one British sociologist, it'll take at least 10,000 hours of such sweaty work to reach the pinnacle of success!

It is practice, however, that makes perfect, according to the sociologist whose books have become required reading within the Conservative party. The best way to achieve international stardom is to spend 10,000 hours honing your skills, says the new book by Malcolm Gladwell, author of the best-selling The Tipping Point.

The greatest athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians and scientists emerge only after spending at least three hours a day for a decade mastering their chosen field.

...“What’s really interesting about this 10,000-hour rule is that it applies virtually everywhere,” Gladwell told a conference held by The New Yorker magazine. “You can’t become a chess grand master unless you spend 10,000 hours on practice.

“The tennis prodigy who starts playing at six is playing in Wimbledon at 16 or 17 [like] Boris Becker. The classical musician who starts playing the violin at four is debuting at Carnegie Hall at 15 or so.”

The obsessive approach is particularly evident in sporting icons. Jonny Wilkinson, the rugby player, Tiger Woods, the golfer, and the Williams sisters in tennis have all trained relentlessly since they were children.

The simple secret is that "the years spent intensively focused on their area of expertise place the world’s most successful people above their peers." That translates into approximately three hours a day for 10 years. That's it. It makes perfect sense to me. Because as I've explained to my son, it doesn't matter how much talent he has, he WILL get passed up by boys who OUT-TRAIN him. It's up to him whether he allows that to happen or not. He has since developed the mentality that he will not ever be out-worked. That mind-set alone will take him to heights his natural talent can't reach. There will always be plenty of players who can pitch as fast as he can, but there will be far fewer of them who will train relentlessly to be The Best. That is where he will shine.

How many times have you watched a truly gifted athlete skate by in his early years on sheer athleticism and coordination alone - easily out-playing lesser-developed boys the same age? I have. But guess what? Those boys never developed a work ethic, or a self-discipline that pushed them to work harder the older they got. I always told my son that if he could out-work his peers, he would out-strip their early achievements. It's just fine to be a home-run king when you're nine years old, and it's quite another to parlay 400' high-school home runs into a college scholarship or professional draft! So what's in between the Little Leaguer and the Major Leaguer? Well, only about 10,000 hours of hard work!