Talent Is Overrated

What Really Separates World-Class

Performers from Everybody Else

Geoff Colvin. 2008. New York: Portfolio.

 The Mystery

 What makes Jack Welch, Tiger Woods, or Itzak

Perlman so awesomely, amazingly, world-class
excellent.
– Natural talent?
– Hard work?
– Years of experience?
 None of the above.
 Good news? Excellent performance is in our
hands far more than most of us ever expected.
 Research

 In past 30 years scientists have looked into top-

level performance in a wide variety of fields.
Findings:
– Natural talent doesn’t explain top-level performance –
if talent even exists.
– In fields such as chess, music, business, and
medicine, high IQ doesn’t necessarily correlate with
top-level performance.
 Some chess masters have below average IQ, for example.
– Deliberate practice is the key.
 Deliberate Practice

 Deliberate practice is extremely difficult.

– The chief constraint is mental.
– The required concentration is so intense that it’s
exhausting.
 Why do some people have the passion to do it?
– To put themselves through it day after day, decade
after decade?
 But they do it, and as a result, performance in
all fields has improved dramatically in recent
decades.
 Research

 In England researchers studied music students.

– The only difference in the top performing group and
other students was not talent, but the amount of
practice.
 Talent is an innate ability to do something better
than others.
– If it does exist, it is irrelevant to superior
performance.
– Practice is what counts – deliberate practice.
 Mozart’s talent is a myth.
– He didn’t get great until after he had 10,000 hours of
practice.
 Tiger Woods talented?
– His father gave Tiger a putter when he was seven
months old.
– Before he was two he and his father were on a
course practicing regularly.
– Both father and son attribute Tiger’s success not to
talent but to “hard work.”
 How Important Are “Smarts?”

 What are smarts?

– Memory?
– We aren’t born with good memories, they are
developed…
 With deliberate practice memory can be improved (102
random digits is the record).
– IQ?
 IQ is the ability to take an IQ test, nothing else.
 No correlation between general IQ and success.
 Domain-specific knowledge and intelligence is developed by
years of deliberate practice.
 Deliberate Practice

 Design practice to work on specific skills.

– Practice alone and on specific weaknesses.
 Practice is cumulative.
– Over the years it adds up.
– And if you’re behind, it’s hard to catch up.
– Ten years or 10,000 hours.
 Five Elements of Deliberate Practice

 Activity specifically designed to improve

performance, often with a teacher’s help.
 Activity that can be repeated a lot – over and
over and over again.
 Feedback on results is continuously available.
 It’s highly demanding mentally.
– Chess, business, sports
 It isn’t much fun.
 Designed

 Identify certain sharply defined elements of

performance that need to be improved.
 High repetition is the most important difference
between regular practice and deliberate practice.
 Deliberate practice is an effort of focused
concentration and is mentally draining.
– No more than five hours.
 It’s not fun because you do things we’re not
good at so we can correct mistakes.
 Top Performers

 They are always striving to improve.

– Not complacent.
– Never let performance become automatic.
 They understand the significance of indicators
that average performers don’t even notice.
– Intuition
 They look further ahead.
 They know more from seeing less.
– A few important indicators.
 Jack Welch concentrated on hiring people.
 Applying the Principles

 Know where you want to go.

 Practice, practice, practice (deliberate practice).
 Deepen your domain knowledge.
– Build a mental model of how your domain functions
as a system.
 A mental model forms a framework on which you hang your
growing knowledge of your domain.
 Helps you distinguish relevant information from irrelevant
information.
 Helps you project what will happen next.
 Know More (Explore)

 When you know more, you innovate more.

 When you know more, you are more creative.
 When you know more, you are more successful.
 Summary

 Know how to practice deliberately.

– Lots of repetitions
– Lots of feedback
– Lots of focus and concentration
 Become an expert in domain-specific knowledge.
– Thus, develop insightful intuition.
 Never become complacent.
 It’s really hard work.