It Just Takes 10,000 hours

Our friends in the UK have a custom during Shiva to wish the mourners, "A Long Life." I have wondered what kind of long life they were blessing others with. For a person simply to spend more time on this earth and not have any meaning or purpose would not seem to be the ideal blessing. I have been pondering this question recently as we heard about the bombshell announcement coming out of Nebraska this week. Omaha's most beloved son, Warren Buffett, at the age of 94, also known as the Oracle of Omaha, announced that he will be stepping down as CEO from his position at Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett, who started the company as a failing textile maker and transformed into an investing juggernaut worth over a cool $160 billion, was calling it a career. Although he had selected his successor a few years ago, the timing of this announcement and his departure from the company by the end of this year caught everyone by surprise. After a standing ovation, applause from the audience of around 40,000, he joked: "The enthusiasm shown by that response could be interpreted in two ways." There is not enough ink in the world to write about many layers of the Warren Buffett story. In his weekly column in the WSJ, Jason Zweig wrote, "Ever since 1942, when he bought his first stock at 11, he has devoured information about companies, reading corporate reports the way most people listen to music. As a young investment manager, Buffett would wander through his house with his nose in a corporate annual report, practically bumping into the furniture, oblivious to the comings and goings of family and friends. While his kids played at an amusement park, he would sit on a bench and read financial statements. Buffett was there physically, but mentally and emotionally, he was off in a world of his own, fixated on tax-loss carryforwards and amortization schedules. According to his estimates, Zweig added, "Buffett has read more than 100,000 financial statements in his more-than-seven-decade career. Malcolm Gladwell wrote in his book, Outliers, about the 10,000 rule. He argues that while some may think that one needs supernatural natural talents or abilities to reach mastery in any field, it really takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery in any skill. Ten thousand hours is a little more than 416 days straight, without eating, sleeping, or anything else. That is not possible for any human being to sustain. However, if one spends four hours a day practicing an activity, over the course of 365 days, that equals 1,460 hours in a year.In less than eight years, one can achieve mastery in that field. Warren Buffett clearly applied the 10,000 to his study of the stock market and dividends paid off quite handsomely. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, the great Torah sage who passed away in 1986, was known to have completed the entire Talmud over 200 times in his lifetime. Reb Moshe, as he was affectionately referred to, applied the 10,000 rule to his dedication and passion for Torah Study. While he may have been blessed with intelligence and a solid memory, the amount of time he spent pursuing his priorities resulted in him being able to master the entire Torah and be proficient in any area of Jewish Studies. It may be a bit of an oversimplification, but there is much truth to the notion that if you want to become the very best in the area of life that is most important to you, all you need to do is spend 10,000 hours on the project. Have a Peaceful Shabbos, Rabbi Yaakov Fisch