Peter Sorgenfrei explains why deliberate practice matters. He cites Kobe Bryant's intense routine and argues you can't compare yourself to someone else's results without matching their effort. Define the life you actually want instead of chasing someone else's.
There's an old joke that goes a little bit like this. How do you get to the opera? asks a tourist in a city. And the local person looks at him and says, you practice. That joke I tell on occasion, and maybe I'm the only one laughing, but there's a lot of truth to it, right? In order for you to get to the pinnacle of where you want to go, you practice. You go out every day and you try to get better at whatever it is that you're trying to do. If you look at athletes, right? If you look at Kobe Bryant, for example, he talked a lot about the fact that he would get up at 4:00 AM in the morning to get a practice in before 6:00, come home, rest, go out and practice again for a couple of hours, go home, eat, rest, go out and practice again for a couple of hours. And the same thing Another time until 10 o'clock at night. And so basically he would get 4 practices in every day, whereas most of his competitors or the other guys in the leagues would get 2 practices in because they would get up at 9 or 10, practice, lunch, go out again, practice, home, dinner, and that would be it. So that compounded over the years and he ended up becoming one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Similarly in business, the person who does more reps typically gets further than the rest. Now, that doesn't mean that you should work yourself to the bone. By far, I've been there, I've done that. I don't recommend that. But it does mean that whomever you're comparing yourself to, whomever you see as your star within your field, think about the sacrifices that they've made. Think about how they have chosen to practice, how they've chosen to lead their lives. Chances are, and this is no reflection upon you, chances are that they are putting in more reps than you are and have been for some time. So in my world, for example, right, sometimes people joke, so are you going to be the next Tony Robbins? I'm like, no, I'm not going to be the next Tony Robbins. A, because the way he does things is not really my thing. And B, because the guy is ready, willing, and able to, and has been for 20 years, to work much, much harder than I will at this. This, for me, is not a question about getting to the opera. For me, it's a question about being able to enjoy the opera and actually have a life while I'm doing this and not 100% be focused on the business. So when you compare yourself to somebody else in the future, think about it. say, well, this person that I want to be like, am I willing to and able to put in the same amount of practice that they have in order to get to the point that they are at some point in my future? And if the answer is no, I don't think I am, then stop comparing yourself. Stop having that as your goal and start thinking about what kind of life is it that I want and where will that then take me? What are the the bounds or the playing field that I'm on. That's much more important than striving to be something that you cannot be because there's no way you can put in the reps that are required to get there.
