Talent Is Overrated
What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
By: Geoff Colvin
Published: Oct 16, 2008
ISBN: 9781591842248
Format: Hardcover, 224pp
Publisher: Portfolio
"Great performance is in our hands far more than most of us ever expected", writes Fortune Senior Editor At Large Geoff Colvin in his myth shattering book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. In the well researched book, and drawing on landmark studies of how successful people achieve greatness in their respective fields, the author turns popular concepts of inborn talent and of plain hard work upside down. In their place, Geoff Colvin proposes the revolutionary principle of deliberate practice, as the true key to achieving greatness in all endeavors.
Geoff Colvin recognizes that greatness exists in every aspect of life, far beyond the fields of sports, games, music, and the arts where inborn talent is most often credited with extraordinary performance. At the same time, another school of thought credits hard work and experience as the fundamental causes of success. The author's research tells a much different story, however. The book describes how long periods of carefully designed study and practice, combined with a superior teacher to provide feedback, is more important than either inborn ability or of long tenure. This concept, that the author calls deliberate practice, is neither easy nor enjoyable, rendering it underutilized by almost everyone in any walk of life.
Geoff Colvin (photo left) recognizes the seeming contradiction in his theory of deliberate practice providing the edge that develops individual greatness. Very often, people are credited with success due to hard work and experience. According to Geoff Colvin, that myth breaks down under closer scrutiny. Recent studies, cited in the book, demonstrate clearly that many long serving employees, or experienced musicians fail to get better over time. They reach a performance plateau, and never advance beyond that point. The author provides strong evidence that less experienced people will perform even more effectively than longer tenured individuals, rendering the hard work and experience reasoning incorrect as well.
For me, the power of the book is how Geoff Colvin provides additional references that deliberate practice, when properly designed into a good program by a skilled teacher, can move anyone beyond that supposed performance barrier. As a result, talent ceilings are recognized as being nonexistent. Instead, what is lacking is proper practice at the core principles and weaknesses of the individual. Because deliberate practice is so effective, the second half of the book proposes that well designed practice programs, along with skilled mentors and instruction, can boost a company's productivity and effectiveness to a significant degree. The competitive edge for a business, using a deliberate practice training regimen, can even create a dominant position within an industry.
I highly recommend the must read and paradigm challenging book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin, to anyone seeking to understand what really contributes to greatness and to extraordinary performance in any field. The author works through the commonly held myths and misconceptions about how outstanding individuals achieve their superior results. In their place, the concept of deliberate practice is presented as the means for both individuals and for organizations of all types to vastly outperform any competition. The practical application of deliberate practice, described in the second half of the book, is essential reading for anyone involved in training, coaching, or mentoring people.
Read the important book Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin, and never look at superior and elite level performances in the same way again. Geoff Colvin takes a deeper look into extraordinary achievement, and in so doing, unlocks the secret code to success. The power of deliberate practice, while not easy or much fun, is available to anyone who seeks to achieve greatness in any endeavor.
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