In his inspirational book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell observes that the best and brightest in any given field did not arrive at their peak performance by pure skill or luck or accident, but through a combination of circumstances that enabled these over-performers to practice and hone their craft over thousands of hours.

He cites the tale of how a college student named Bill Gates stumbled onto computer access at the University of Washington, where he spent eight hours a day, every day, learning the language of computers.

He notes how the grueling nightclub schedules of Hamburg, Germany forced The Beatles to play eight hours a day, seven days a week while over in Liverpool bands were getting in, perhaps, one hour of play per night.

And how Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems maneuvered his way to access the University of Michigan computer center to practically live, logged on, 24/7.

These stories of opportunity – including Gladwell’s own fortuitous circumstances – make for compelling reading. But the common thread is that tireless effort and toil to boost proficiency leads to extraordinary performance in measures far beyond what the typical child or student will achieve through a typical school year.

For parents encouraging excellence and children or young adults chasing a dream, Gladwell’s stories are inspirational. For companies seeking to market their products and services on radio, that’s great news for a specialty marketer like The Radio Agency.

The Radio Agency’s top management personnel have logged those 10,000 hours in radio, learning the ropes, the tricks and the secrets to success. Our “skinned knees” minimize the chances you’ll trip and fall. And more than a traditional ad agency, with its hands in every type of media imaginable, our sole focus is – and always has been – Sound Advertising. Sure “the big guys” may have people with 10,000 hours of marketing experience, but when you divide that number by the numbers of different media where they’ve logged their time, their radio experience pales by comparison.

Please forgive these statements if they strike you as boastful. It’s not our intent to brag. But as direct marketers, we’re simply trying to deliver the message that if you want to profitably market your brands on radio, you’d do well to turn to experts who do that – and nothing but that – 52 weeks a year.

We’ve logged our 10,000 hours.

Mark Lipsky is the President and CEO of The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above.Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com