“The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they’d already solved. They’re open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.”
Jeff Bezos
In matters of excellence and creativity, the difference-maker has little to do with natural endowment but a lot to do with doing the work. And doing the work is not an event; it is a process: a process of toil and conscientious revision.
Excellence is not about what we do once in a while, it is about what we do, again and again, for a long period of time. This is what the theory of 10,000-Hour Rule unmistakably describes.
That is, to become a master in any field, we need to keep at it for hours in thousands of deliberate practice. In order words, every expert has spent about ten years of labor to improve and progress on the fundamentals of their craft.
Revision is the cornerstone of true excellence; it is the ultimate difference between average and extra-ordinary performance in all fields of endeavors.
To use writing as an example here: know that amateur writers are the ones who manage to write their manuscripts once or twice, but literary masters are the ones who painstakingly re-write their work, over and over on a granular level.
An author of the satirical novel, ‘The Corrections,’ Jonathan Franzen boldly highlighted this point when he said: “The (elite) writer’s life is a life of revisions.”
Furthermore, let’s read what three notable modern writers have to say with regards to the concept of revision:
1} A Writer-in-Residence at the Harvard Divinity School, Terry Tempest Williams says:
“Through revision, I enter the realm of the unspeakable and find the words that have eluded me.”
2} A Russian novelist and poet, Vladimir Nabokov says:
“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”
3} An American journalist and short-story writer, Ernest Hemingway says about one of his best works:
“I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.”
If we can cultivate the grit to stay longer with creative challenges, we will give ourselves enough time to think and refine until we can come up with something truly remarkable.
It’s through sheer determination that great performers overcome the hurdles of discovery. And like them, if we are willing to patiently revise and refine our approach for as long as it takes, we will be surprised by the unlimited capacity of our minds.
In the words of the British business magnate, Richard Branson: “Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.”
You see, in the end, patient revision is the simple secret behind true mastery and enduring excellence.
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