This summer, I had a chance to read the manuscript of Fortune editor Geoff Colvin's new book, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
Colvin's thesis, first laid out in this Fortune story, is that we overstate the importance of inborn ability in explaining high performers -- and understate the importance of hard work. But it's not just any sort of hard work that leads to excellence. The secret is something psychologists call "deliberate practice" -- a specific, focused, repeatable, not especially fun method of continuous improvement.
This idea applies with particular force to Bunko's "persistence trumps talent" lesson. The people Colvin studied -- Ben Franklin, Mozart, Tiger Woods -- were never overnight successes. They persisted, persisted, and persisted some more -- often taking a full decade to truly master their discipline. The concepts also relate to Lesson 2 (you're more likely to practice something that's a source of strength) and Lesson 5 (you're more likely to take risks if you're truly committed to your calling.)
The book hit stores last week. So give it a look. Talent is Overrated isn't perfect -- I wish Colvin had included more takeaways, for instance -- but I think you'll find an extremely illuminating read.
Thanks for this post, Dan. "What It Takes To Be Great" is on the short list of my favorite magazine stories ever, but somehow I hadn't realized that Colvin was writing a book derived from it.
Since I first read that article, I've made a sidelight of studying Anders Ericsson's research. (See, for instance, the URL I've linked to my name here.) I'll be glad to read Colvin's book, and I hope it gets wide attention.