10,000 hours to success as a game developer

In 2008, Gladwell’s book “Outliers: The Story of Success” repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. This equates to 1,250 working days, or 5 working years of focus on your core skill.

Is this how long it took you to get to call yourself a successful? I certainly wonder just how much of anyone’s skill or experience is relevant anymore. I believe only the last 5 years is relevant to what you do as the rest is just old hat and knowledge that can be easily achieved by someone chasing your heels.

The kicker is, it can all disappear in an instant for no apparent reason.