The chances are the first boy will be bigger, stronger,
and more coordinated. He is much more likely than the other
boy to be chosen to play in junior teams. He will then get
better coaching than the others, and will play many more
games, so will also get more practice. In the beginning his
advantage isn’t so much that he is more talented, simply
that he is older. He was lucky enough to be born in the first
months of the year. But by the age of 13 or 14, with the
extra coaching and practice, he really will be better than the
others, and far more likely to be successful.
The extra practice is vital, because the second factor that
Gladwell believes is of great importance in determining
whether somebody is going to be successful or not is what he
calls the ‘10,000 hours theory’. This theory, based on studies
in many different fields, says that in order to get to the very
top you need to put in 10,000 hours of practice, whether
it is playing an instrument or a sport, or programming a
computer