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John F Kennedy once stated “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try”. I suggested this quote to get you in the right frame of mind when thinking about turning yourself into a superstar. If you have graduated from a university you have at some point in your life been a superstar in something. In a subject at school, a sport on the side or an interest you are passionate about. It is never too late to become a superstar, you just have to pick the right area that matches your skills and passions. With this theme I would like to encourage you set out a personal goal to become a superstar in the field you desire most.
During the last three years I have had the opportunity to meet a few people influencing my thinking about super stars:
- Mike Modano – The most successful American born ice-hockey player in NHL. A 20 year long career and his #9 Dallas Stars jersey sent up into the ceiling the spring of 2014.
- Diana Nyad – The first person to ever swim from Cuba to Key West in Florida, USA. Accomplished in 2013 at age 64 after making her first attempt in 1978.
- Kee Marcello – The lead guitarist in the Swedish rock band Europe. Spent enormous amounts of time alone with his guitar as a teenager to breed success later on in life.
- Simon Westlund – World champion in a category of the Rubik’s Cube. Almost as fast with one hands as with two.
A common denominator for these superstars is they have worked hard and invested many hours on their passion in life. Practice, practice and practice is a vital recipe for success. Malcom Gladwell has outlined a theory you need to invest 10 000 hours to become great at something. If you invest 100 hours per year you are doing a major training commitment. To get to 10 000 you need to combine formal training with on-the-job training to get the desired results. A super-star candidate focus on areas he or she is passionate about to make the dream come true.
Here a few suggestions on questions for you to work with as part of your pursuit:
In which areas were I a superstar when I was young? – By looking into your youth passions you are likely to find clues to your future.
In which fields do I have skills that I can leverage to become a superstar by 2020? – Becoming a superstar is about leveraging your already strong sides further.
Do I have the desire enough to pay the price for becoming a superstar in the areas I select to invest my time? – Becoming a superstar does not come for free.
For further insights you might want to consider:
- Outliers: the story of success [BOOK] – by Malcolm Gladwell
- 10 000 hours of practice [BLOG] – by the Wisdom group.
- 12 things every sales super star knows [BLOG] – by SalesTrax
- The 5 attributes of high performing employees [BLOG] – by TLNT (@TLNT_com)
2020 is just 5 years or 10 000 working hours away. You can become a superstar by 2020 but you need to start soon and have the ambition to develop towards your target every day.
Join like minded early career professionals in collaborations on this theme via @TweeterLinder and #DigitalMentor.
Tweeter Linder 
Timelessly invaluable words from JFK. Thanks for sharing
I have learned alot from this tweet and the digital mentor concept. Even reading the outlier made me think alot of what we can be and who we can be if we aim for. 2015 is the investment year, alot to learn. thank you for sharing those rich ideas.
I have actually saw this over the weekend and then wanted to read it again today to try to really understand how to create action items by utilizing this knowledge and experience. For me, becoming a super star in 2020 seems extremely tempting and very motivating. However I was faced with some hard questions that I didn’t know how to answer. For example, With the technology domain that I work in, it is extremely dynamic, what is popular today might not be tomorrow, so on the technical skills side it can be really hard to invest your time in a skill that might not even be relevant by 2020. But then I came to the conclusion that this discussion is a little bigger than I originally thought, what this article is teaching all of us, is how to learn to match your (responsive) skills, that start becoming noticeable, at a young age with their projection of your ability to manage and enhance your success and skills within your passion limits. I know that I still have a lot to learn from this article and the previous ones also. so I will be building quick notes to help me get the most out of this and add them to my notebook. and I will share it also, in the hope it can help someone else 🙂
Great.
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