Tag Archives: The Reckoning

The Discipline of Discipline — Reflections on the Tiger Mother, the 10,000 Hour Rule, Work Ethic, and a Little More

It has been a while since a book has sparked such interest, such controversy, such applause and disdain, and almost furor, as Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Yale Professor, and mother, Amy Chua (currently #5 on the overall list of bestsellers on Amazon).  If you haven’t heard about it, you really must be living in a cave…  Here’s a paragraph from the review by Janet Maslin from the New York Times:

Ms. Chua was not about to raise prizeless slackers. She wanted prodigies, even if it meant nonstop, punishing labor. So “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” chronicles its author’s constant demanding, wheedling, scolding and screaming. It describes seemingly endless piano and violin sessions that Ms. Chua supervised. (Her own schedule of teaching, traveling, writing and dealing with her students goes mostly unmentioned — and would require her to put in a 50-hour workday.) And it enforces a single guiding principle that is more reasonable than all the yelling suggests: “What Chinese parents understand is that nothing is fun until you’re good at it.”

Amy Chua

 

Amy Chua, and discussions of her book, have been everywhere – I’ve heard her on NPR, read about her in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, yesterday in Points in the Dallas Morning News.

I’ve got three observations/reflections about this whole discussion.

#1 – I think I probably (ok, make that definitely) could have been more disciplined – make that, demanded more discipline – in raising our two sons.

#2 – After all the angst and disagreement and argument over her specific approach, I think she is simply saying this – it takes time, lots and lots of time, to get good at anything, and to get children to put in that kind of time, the parent has to put in that kind of time.  I think she is saying that to learn to master anything can develop the ability to master other things in life.

I thought of a woman I know.  She heard me present my synopsis of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and she was intrigued by the 10,000 hour rule — the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to get really, world-class good at anything (Gladwell did not “develop/discover” it – he is always the great popularizer.  Dr. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University is apparently the one who came up with the concept, after his extensive study of expertise).  This woman earned her Ph.D. in some field of Business, and teaches at the graduate level.  But in her “first life,” she was an accomplished pianist, playing at the top level.  She told me that she did a quick back-of-the-napkin calculation after my presentation, and figured out that she put in well over 10,000 hours on the piano, and now puts in the same kind of time in her business research and writing.

In other words, the discipline of discipline, once learned and mastered, carries over into additional endeavors.

#3 – I remembered a story from a book by David Halberstam.  The book, The Reckoning, tells of the rise and fall of Ford, and the rise of Nissan (up to the point the book was written – it came out in 1986).  It is a terrific read.  In the book (my apology, my copy is in storage – so this is from memory), he described a conversation he had with a man in Japan who worked at Nissan.  He described how in America, life had gotten “easy,” and the people had lost the hunger that drives the discipline needed to be the best.  He observed that this hunger (almost a sense of desperation) led to Nissan’s ascendancy.  But, then a warning – he had already seen this hunger begin to lessen in Japan, and he saw it “transferring” over to Korea.  The formula – hunger leads to discipline leads to success – is one that I remember vividly.  I think this Tiger Mother may have captured a piece of that.

I have not yet read the book.  But I think that it points us to a fear – a fear that we simply lack the discipline needed to get good at anything, and then later to get good at other things.  And I suspect that a whole lot of people are reading this book feeling just a little bit scared.

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Yes, I did read David Brooks column, Amy Chua is a Wimp.  I think it’s cute.  I really like Brooks, but in this case, I think he may be off-target.  There are a whole lot of people who excel at sleepovers who never excelled, and may never excel, at much of anything else…

The New “Zippies” — and the Growing Skill Deficit

The World is Flat• The new “zippies” — “a young city or suburban resident, with a zip in his stride.  Generation Z.  Oozes attitude, ambition, and aspiration.  Cool, confident, and creative.  Seeks challenges, loves risks, and shuns fear.”
(Describing younger adults in India — Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat)

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Last night, I spent a really wonderful evening with a group of very sharp women.  We discussed the book Womenomics by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman.  There were many parts of the book that were met with approval and agreement.  But they weren’t so sure about this:  in the book, the authors state that “The millennials are influencing expectations for the entire workforce…the next generation has no interest at all in the sixty-hour work week.”

The Reckoning:  A tale of two cultures as seen through two car companies

The Reckoning: A tale of two cultures as seen through two car companies

I remember reading David Halberstam’s great book The Reckoning.  In the book, he described some bad years for Ford and the ascendancy of Nissan.  The book is in storage, so I can’t give you an exact quote, but I clearly remember this:  younger Americans had become complacent, not driven, not hungry – and a little lazy and apathetic.  At the same time, the younger adults in Japan were working really, really hard because they were so hungry.  He clearly implied that hunger trumps apathy.

I thought of that when I read Thomas Friedman’s column this morning:  The New Untouchables.  Here are some excerpts:

A year ago, it all exploded. Now that we are picking up the pieces, we need to understand that it is not only our financial system that needs a reboot and an upgrade, but also our public school system. Otherwise, the jobless recovery won’t be just a passing phase, but our future.

A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.

Bottom line: We’re not going back to the good old days without fixing our schools as well as our banks.

I agree that we need to retool our education, or we will be in genuine trouble.  We are definitely growing an alarming education deficit.

But I would suggest that Friedman is hinting at another bottom line.  I would word it this way:  we’re not going back to the good old days unless we get a little more hungry, and develop a new generation of zippies right here in our country.

I don’t think that Kay and Shipman are calling for a lesser work ethic.  They are, in fact, arguing for hard work – when you are at work.  But, this desire of a younger generation to “work less” may translate into a lesser work ethic at the very time that we are in competition with people all over the world who may be ready to work harder than we do.  And if there is anything I have learned in business books lately, work ethic really matters. From the 10,000 hour rule popularized by Gladwell’s Outliers, to the call for deliberate practice in Colvin’s Talent is Overrated, it takes hard work over a long period to get really good at anything.  And that hard work has to start with working hard to learn what is available to learn in school — and then adding skill after skill after skill after school.

In Freidman’s article, he describes that a person can be a very competent lawyer with just the skills learned in school.  But then, the lawyers that survive and thrive in tough times have to develop other skills – skills not taught in school, like client cultivation, networking, the skill to imagine new ways to work…the list grows and grows.  As for the people who learned what they learned in school, and expect that that will be “enough” – well, it isn’t enough.  Not anymore.

So – here is your simple question for the day.  Do you “ooze attitude, ambition, and aspiration?”  When a person watches you walk down the sidewalk, would they describe you as a “zippie?”  If not, you’d better look over your shoulder, because someone is about to pass you.

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You can purchase my synopsis of The World is Flat, with audio + handout, at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  The Womenomics synopsis is coming soon.