Architects and Architecture students in the Caribbean and other parts of the world are feeling the results of the economic recession in the US. I have spoken with several Caribbean Architects and other professionals; the story is the same, “things are slowing down.” New work is almost non-existent for some firms, with lay-offs happening at others. Newly graduated students have either been unemployed or are unable to find a job. An architect’s value lies in the quality and volume of work he or she has done; built or unbuilt, your portfolio matters. How do you work toward success in these times? By combining ability, opportunity and arbitrary advantage, you will be a success.

Brian Lara is one of the finest cricketers the world has ever seen, and the greatest batsman to emerge from Trinidad and Tobago. He holds several World records, has made indelible marks on the history of cricket, and has become an international celebrity. How does a precocious six year old with a “talent” for batting end up being the greatest batsman in Trinidad and Tobago, one of the greatest in the West Indies, and one of the finest the world has ever seen? Was it all extraordinary talent and great natural ability? How does this relate to the architecture profession? The answer lies in that combination of ability, opportunity and sometimes random chance.

Lara was born in 1969 in Santa Cruz, Trinidad and Tobago. The tenth in a family of eleven children, Lara exhibited precocious “talent” and ability at a young age. His family recognized his batting talents and enrolled him in the Harvard Coaching Clinic at the age of six; resulting in a very early education in batting techniques. AboutBrianLara.com tells us that Lara's first school was St. Josephs Roman Catholic primary. He then went to San Juan secondary, but played no cricket there. A year later, fourteen years old, he moved on to Fatima College.

All of his coaches detected talent in him. They saw some “extraordinary abilities” in him and supported him. Malcolm Gladwell in his best-selling book The Outliers tells us that “practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” I can say without a doubt Lara practiced a lot of batting and grabbed the opportunity to bat more. He spent his 10,000 hours (read more on this later) doing what he loved. In November 2005, he went past Allan Border's tally of 11174 runs to become Test cricket's most prolific scorer.

Neurologist Daniel Levitin in his book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession writes that in order to be a world-class expert in anything, be it drama, music, art, gymnastics, whatever, one needs to have a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. The number comes up again and again in study after study of composers, concert pianists, chess players and more. Ten thousand hours is a phenomenal amount of time – some studies estimate it to be equivalent to 10 years. Without the support of colleagues, family, and community, it would be even more difficult for a young adult to make his or her 10,000 hrs.

Ravi Shastri in a Roundtable discussion of modern batsmen picked Lara as his greatest modern batsman. He said “technique, natural skills, ability to handle pressure and ability to score in different conditions meaning adaptability” made Lara great. He has all the shots in the book. Shastri added that consistency and the span of Lara’s career aided in allowing him to be great. “You can't do it just for one or two years. To be rated it should be a decade, a little more than a decade,” says Shastri. It is remarkable that he too mentions 10 years.

Ability according to Princeton.edu is “the quality of being able to perform; a quality that permits or facilitates achievement or accomplishment.” Note it does not mention being born a genius. It is a quality that facilitates, that helps or increases the likelihood of achievement. Brian Lara shined because of his great ability; he didn’t just work hard…he worked much, much harder than everyone else.

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