In Malcolm Gladwell's book, "Outliers," he talks about the 10,000 hour principle. That you don't get really, truly prodigal in something until you've practiced for 10,000 hours. He talks about how the Beatles were mediocre until they hit the 10,000 hour mark playing small German pubs. He talks about how Bill Gates spent nights in the computer lab for years on end before anyone else even thought to. To really be great at something, you gotta put in the time. This is also a long-winded way of saying "be patient." You're not going to be the next Paul McCartney or Bill Gates overnight. Even they weren't! You're going to spend 1,000 hours being pretty terrible, the next 3,000 hours being okay, the next 4,000 hours being pretty good, and the last 1,999 being super until you finally get so amazing you can barely fathom your own superiority. Then you know -- so no need to time yourself. You've probably studied a foreign language. You've probably read textbooks, done exercises, watched videos, etc. and so forth ad infinitum. That gets you started, it gets the ball rolling, but the ball loses momentum with time. If you wanted to be fluent in that language, you'd move to the country. You'd actually do it. It's the same with any large idea. You can't watch a video. You can't just observe. You can't study it for years on end until you have a piece of paper. You have to go out there and do it. The next time someone offers you an opportunity and you're not sure whether to take it, don't listen to yourself and just do it. It doesn't matter if you're ill-prepared or unsure or doubtful of your abilities. Do it anyway. Turn that voice off; it's doing you more harm than good. Get your hands on whatever you can. Do you want to be an astronaut? Don't just read a book. Go to your nearest planetarium and stay until they ask you to leave and then do that every day until they know you by name and offer to show you around the back. Suck up to your professor until he breaks out the special telescope just for you. Just take action. Go. Alright, here's a fact of life for you: There is not enough time in the day to have your cake and eat it, too. If you wanna ace all your Organic Chem tests, you can't spend every night in the bar with your friends. You will have to prioritize. You'll have to skip out on things you want to do to make time for the things you need to do. You'll need to spend hours upon hours building up your skills, which you can't do if you're doing anything else. There may come a time when instead of doing a sport, you pick up a part-time job. There will be weekends you need to spend in the library. There will be times when you can't go out with the hot guy or girl even when it's the only night they're in town. These things have to happen in order for you to be as good as you can possibly be. You have to think of it as you ultimately doing yourself a favor. Your future self, sure, but still yourself. Make horrible, terrible, ugly mistakes. Get people hating you. Do things so differently that people think you're crazy. Fail so miserably that you come out the other side knowing exactly what not to do. Take pride in it. You're doing something. The only way to avoid criticism and failure is to do nothing. Making a target of yourself means you're doing something. You're living. Thus, failing is good. It is natural and it is right. If nothing else, it's strategizing and narrowing things down. When you have 10 possibilities and you know 9 of them don't work, guess what? At the end of the day, it's imperative you sit down and think about the day's events. What worked out? What didn't? What could you have done better? What are you glad you did and not so glad you didn't? If you don't step back to think about these things, to think about where you are, you'll never know where to go and how to get there. While it's important to analyze your successes (how can you recreate them?), it's doubly important to analyze your failures. This can get frustrating and demotivating to an extreme, but it must be done. Don't let it set you back! Remember: even a failure is progress. Being the best is about fine-tuning your skills. You don't live in a vacuum. You have dozens of people around you that want to help. That can help. Everyone you know knows something you don't. Because of that, they can all help you -- even if it's in the tiniest of ways. Use their knowledge to put you on the fast track to being the best. Strength in numbers, after all. No one has ever gotten to where they are without help from other people. Not only will you avoid doing things that have already been done, but they can tell you ways they've tried that haven't worked, too. When you put your heads together, you automatically cut the work into parts. Being the best isn't about being the best all alone -- it's about being the best with what (and who) you have to work with. "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there," is a quote attributed to Will Rogers. And a very, very insightful and truthful quote at that. In order to be the best, there's gotta be constant progress. Constant practice. Constant self-analyzation. Constant teamwork. Constant determination. If you're doing what you love, you'll be happy. You'll know you're on the right track. If you keep on learning and challenging yourself, you'll know you're making progress. With time and effort, you'll keep getting better and better. Setbacks happen, failures can wreak havoc, but at the end of the day you'll still be pretty damn good. Once you hit 10,000 hours it doesn't mean you can stop! Did Steve Jobs stop when he made the iPod nano? NO. HE DIDN'T. If anything, your best work will come after the 10,000 hour mark. Don't you wanna see what you're capable of? When you become the cream of the crop, it's all too easy to look down on the Plebeians below you. You can become out of touch and, quite frankly, an ass. Don't do it! Think of all the people it took to get you where you are. How would you want to be treated? When it comes to most things, there will always be someone who is better than you. By the time you become better than them, there will be someone else in the picture. And if you are better than them at something, there's something else where they take the cake. Remember this. It's how you treat those below you that determines your character, not your equals.

Summary: Practice. Learn by doing. Make sacrifices. Fail. Practice self-analysis. Use other people to your advantage. Stay on track and keep moving forward. Be modest.

You can create even zig-zag lines by moving your arm back and forth in a uniform way across the entire sheet of cake balls. For decorating the cake pops, you can either sprinkle chopped chunks or use a food processor to create finely chopped pieces. You can also use other nuts, like peanuts, as a substitute if walnuts are unavailable. To ensure a hard coating and for any toppings to appear more uniform, place the cake balls in the freezer or refrigerator for about an hour or two.
Summary: Drizzle additional melted chocolate on top. Sprinkle the walnuts on top. Chill the cake balls again. Finished.