Your question aside for a moment, for what it's worth, "they" do not say this, that's Malcolm Gladwell misinterpreting research, according to the researchers themselves. See e.g. https://www.inc.com/nick-skillicorn/the-10000-hour-rule-was-... or google `10000 hours gladwell researchers` or what have you and you should find plenty of skepticism and/or failed replication results. My recollection is that Freakonomics or Planet Money also did an episode with the researchers explaining what their data actually said (IIRC the takeaways were more about deliberate practice). I'm sure others in the field may have more to add on what the science actually says (so your question is still of course a good one).
Your question aside for a moment, for what it's worth, "they" do not say this, that's Malcolm Gladwell misinterpreting research, according to the researchers themselves. See e.g. https://www.inc.com/nick-skillicorn/the-10000-hour-rule-was-... or google `10000 hours gladwell researchers` or what have you and you should find plenty of skepticism and/or failed replication results. My recollection is that Freakonomics or Planet Money also did an episode with the researchers explaining what their data actually said (IIRC the takeaways were more about deliberate practice). I'm sure others in the field may have more to add on what the science actually says (so your question is still of course a good one).