Several years ago, the popular author, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success”, popularized the “10,000 –Hour Rule”. Gladwell believes the key to achieving world-class expertise in any skill is performing or practicing the skill thoughtfully and in the correct manner for around 10,000 hours. He found this rule to be a common factor among highly successful people, including people like the Beatles or Bill Gates.
Anders Ericsson, the lead researcher on the study of Berlin violinists which Gladwell obtained his concept of the “10,000-Hour Rule”, clarifies that it is not simply practicing or performing a particular skill for 10,000 hours, but the tasks must be performed with “deliberate practice”, meaning one is focusing on trying to improve and achieve the highest level of performance.
Recently, while performing a rhinoplasty in his Manhattan operating room, Stephanie Accardo, RN, Dr.Guida’s operating room nurse manager, noted that we logged in well over 10,000 operations in our Park Avenue operating suite over the last several years. Extrapolating those number of operations, each which take approximately 2 hours, (not accounting for procedures done in outside surgery center facilities, or during the first ten years of his career as a full-time faculty member at the Weill Cornell Medical College, or his four year ENT residency), this goes well beyond Gladwell’s “10,000-Hour Rule” of achieving world-class expertise in a field. Dr. Guida’s clinical expertise spans approximately 33 years of performing rhinoplasty, revision rhinoplasty, nasal reconstruction, face-neck lifts, blepharoplasties, and other facial cosmetic and reconstructive procedures.
Dr. Robert Guida spent the first ten years of his career as a full-time academic physician at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine, achieving the rank of Associate Professor and Director of Facial Plastic Surgery. For the last twenty-two years, Dr Guida has been in private practice and still maintains an academic position as a Clinical Associate Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Guida likes to emphasize that it is not simply doing a large number of operations over a long period of time that achieves great results, but it is doing each individual operation with extreme care and thoughtfulness. Much planning goes into each rhinoplasty, revision rhinoplasty, and even a facelift or blepharoplasty. The nose operation, specifically, is challenging due the complex anatomy of cartilage and bone as well as genetic variances or traumatic nasal injuries seen among different people. This is a highly individualized operation with each operation requiring its own specific plan.
Dr. Guida is committed to giving his patients the best care humanly possible as well as providing thoughtful post operative management. His intense surgical training and his breadth and depth of both academic and clinical practice has allowed him to go well beyond the “”10,000-Hour Rule” of achieving greatness. You can be reassured this amalgamation of training, artful skill, and genuine concern for his patients will help achieve the best results possible.
Dr, Guida is grateful for his committed and wonderful staff members, his supportive family, and most importantly, his patients that trust him with their care.
