Rule #58 "Never Underestimate the Power of Repetition"

Charles Elwood Yeager was born February 13th 1923. He would grow to become one of the most legendary pilots in American history. Starting as an aircraft mechanic, he eventually entered as an enlisted pilot trainee. Yeager’s career would include his flying almost every known type of military plane. The faster it was the more likely Yeager was to pilot it.

On October 14, 1947 the world was introduced to its first sonic boom. It was on this day flying an experimental BellX-1 at Mach 1 at an altitude of 45,000 feet Chuck Yeager became the first human to break the sound barrier. In Tom Wolfe’s book, “The Right Stuff” Yeager’s heroics led countless teens to pursue their dreams of becoming pilots.

Chuck Yeager did not believe good pilots were born. Yeager, the owner of a growth mindset, believed it was practice and repetition that enabled a pilot to become remarkable.

Yeager believed, “There is no such thing as a natural born pilot. Whatever my aptitude or talents, becoming a proficient pilot was hard work, really a lifetime of experiences..”

Does this mean everyone born can become a superior pilot? No. However, it does mean we can all become closer to exceptional if we are willing to put in the repetitions over and over. The same sort of repetitions Larry Bird was known for or Michael Jordan.

In what is now one of my favorite books of all time “The Boys In The Boat” author Daniel James Brown recalls some striking calculations regarding the 1936 crew that took gold in Berlin.

By Royal Brougham’s calculations, done that night on a bar napkin, in four years of college rowing, each of them [the crew] had rowed approximately 4,344 miles, far enough to take him from Seattle to Japan. Along the way, each had taken roughly 469,000 strokes with his oar, all in preparation for only 28 miles of actual collegiate racing.

It’s the strokes, swings, shots over and over and over no one ever sees that prepare us for the ones that no one will ever forget.

Don’t underestimate the power of doing something over and over in the pursuit of mastery.

You rule!