What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

This book helps to dispel the concept of the “overnight success story” or the idea that high performers are pre-ordained from birth. Rather, the author credits much of their success to what he calls “Deliberate practice”, a highly structured process that involves well designed practice activities, coaching, repetition, feedback, self regulation, building knowledge and mental models.

The mental model concept is particularly interesting, this being the idea that all high performers possess a model of how their domain should operate. They can then hang individual experiences on it, and react reflexively to new situations that arise.

The author looks at the concept of innovation, saying that innovation is never a light bulb moment, but really the culmination of years of practice or research. In some fields, more than 10 years of work is required for one innovative idea. The author concludes:
“The most eminent creators are consistently those who have immersed themselves utterly in their chosen field, have devoted their lives to it, amassed tremendous knowledge of it, and continually pushed themselves to the front of it”

This book also looks at children - what sort of environment is most conducive to the success of children, leading to them becoming high performers? The author suggests that the “Multiplier effect” may have something to do with those who go on to become high performers - where small advantages build up over time and lead to overwhelming dominance in a particular field. An interesting hypothesis.

The book is realistic and notes that “...the high performer is someone who makes tremendous demands on himself and others.. and chooses perfection of the work over perfection of the life.”

Overall, well researched, readable, and inspiring.

This is an interesting book with food for thought. However, what is troubling is that the author relays a lot of anecdotal stories about the performance of various groups of people without citing any sources. Where does this information that he spits out come from? One can't be sure these anecdotal stories are even true -- if they were, then why not state the source because that would really strengthen the argument he's trying to make.

Challenges our preconceived notions of talent. Never again will I said he or she is a born - well - anything. Excellence - in any field - is something that takes a lot of work over a long period of time. The author lays out the significant amount of research related to top performers and find that all seem to do the same thing - use deliberate practice over a period of time. But another key finding is that all are intrinsically motivated - holding that passion is key. But where does passion come from? How do we get it? Geoff also tries to answer that question. A good study for those of us trying to lead others. But a great read for those of us trying to lead ourselves.

When looking at the greats in a field, particularly artistic and athletic fields, people tend to focus on the prodigies. Mozart was composing as a child. Tiger Woods was golfing as a toddler. People tend to assume they had some unnatural talent or passion that led them to greatness. In TALENT IS OVERRATED, Geoff Colvin shows why these stories are just myths. It's practice not passion, testing not talent, that makes someone great.

I first heard of TALENT IS OVERRATED in SO GOOD THEY CAN'T IGNORE YOU by Cal Newport (check out my review on this site). Newport suggests reading TALENT IS OVERRATED for a discussion of deliberate practice.

Geoff Colvin summarizes a lot of studies to show that the best in a field aren't necessarily the smartest; they don't have the best memories; and their abilities weren't innate. Instead, people become the best because they worked to be so-but in a very particular way: deliberate practice.

So what is deliberate practice? Geoff Colvin writes that it's a very specific form of practice that 1) is designed specifically to improve performance, 2) it can be repeated a lot, 3) feedback on results is continuously available, 4) it is highly demanding, and 5) it isn't much fun.

Geoff Colvin goes on to describe how businesses can apply the concept of deliberate practice towards creating future industry leaders. Geoff Colvin also shows the benefits of using deliberate practice to extend the longevity of your career beyond that of your peers.

It's an intriguing idea. Deliberate practice sounds dreadful, so, naturally, few people actually use it. Therefore, the few that do will jump ahead of their peers. But Geoff Colvin doesn't really explain in a satisfying way what drives people to pursue deliberate practice over the course of years (it will likely take over ten years to become great, he says, by the way). And although he relies heavily on "Making of an Expert" by K. Anders Ericsson and others (Harvard Business Review, July 2007) he doesn't explore as deeply Ericsson's other requirements for becoming an expert: world class coaching and a supportive family.

Therefore, while not as complete a discussion of the topic as I would have liked, on balance, this is a good book, full of useful advice. In particular, as a writer, I enjoyed his comments on Ben Franklin's deliberate practice as a young writer, and I will start using some of his techniques myself. Check back in ten years for a status update. In the meantime, start reading this. Then (deliberate) practice, (deliberate) practice, (deliberate) practice.

Hard work as the most important factor that determines success has become the latest politically correct topic. I must be missing something. When I was a kid I, like every boy from a good family, had to learn to play some musical instrument. For me it was clarinet. I wasn't particularly talented, but I still vividly remember one kid who was particularly untalented. Every scale and etude was a major struggle for him. His aspiration was to play, like his dad, in the funeral band. I am not mocking that kid and wish that he achieved everything he wanted to, but I seriously doubt that he is a famous clarinet player.

Didn't you see it at school: some kids are born runners, some are exceptionally strong. Yet, some are good at math and some have the feel for the language and can write poetry without effort.

The book is misleading, and talent is important. The study of violinists that the book quotes included only a handful of musicians and was retrospective. Were these guys becoming better violinists because they were practicing more? Or were they practicing more because they were good at playing their instruments? There were a lot of musicians that were paid top money for their music in the 18th century, but can you whistle a piece by any of Mozart's contemporary composer?

If you are interested in another side of the argument I highly recommend reading The Sports Gene by David Epstein. It is thoroughly researched and clearly demonstrates the role of genetics. Even though it focuses on sports, it also covers some aspects of genetics that are relevant in areas of performance other than physical.

Colvin's thesis is that top performance in nearly any field you can name is not really a function of talent, of people being "gifted" or receiving "inspiration." Likewise, he argues, you cant explain great performance as a function of experience or high IQ or extraordinary memory. Rather it is the product of a particular kind of hard work that he calls "deliberate practice." This thesis is supported by a significant body of research and illustrated by a number of real-life examples.

Deliberate practice, as researchers define it, is activity that is:
1) designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher's help
2) that is able to be repeated a lot
3) where feedback on results is continuously available
4) it is highly demanding mentally (this is true regardless of whether the activity
is purely intellectual, like chess or business, or heavily physical, like sports).
5) and finally, it isn't much fun.

I found the argument pretty compelling with respect to individual performance and great accomplishments. I found myself applying the model to very accomplished people I know and it fits quite well. His concrete advice on how to apply these principles to improving one's own performance is also useful (he identifies three generic models or kinds of practice - music, chess, and sports - that are widely adaptable to whatever area you want to improve in).

I was much less convinced by his chapter on applying the principles to organizations and teams.

This thesis has a kind of double edge. On the one hand, you have it in your power to significantly increase your performance if you're willing to make the necessary sacrifices (although, unless you're starting young, you may never be able to "catch up" with the very best because deliberate practice is cumulative and takes time as well as effort). On the other hand, this idea will be a hard pill for many to swallow because it means that you are at least partly responsible for your failures as well. None of the external factors holding you back are the most important factor in great achievement.

There is one important matter to consider that the book touches on but doesn't discuss at length. Let's grant that you really can achieve great performance in a narrowly defined domain by the disciplined and sacrificial pursuit of "deliberate practice." But what if you find that you've laboriously climbed the ladder of success only to find that it's leaning against the wrong wall? I couldn't help feeling that there was something sad in the success stories of people whose entire lives were work and whose entire work was playing chess. All work and no play, it turns out, can make you a great scientist, golfer, musician, chess master, or CEO. But will you be a successful PERSON? will you be happy? will you be good? The liberating but frightening truth is that, within wider limits than you might think, it really is in your hands.

I will focus this review on the differences between "Talent is Overrated" and "The Talent Code." Some reviewers argue that Talent Code is the better book, but after reading both I will say that each book, although coming to the same conclusions, offers different information. They are both useful and I believe you will get a better understanding of the topic if you read the two books.

I read "The Talent Code" first, which focuses more on the science behind super-achievers, particularly focusing on the process that our brains use to become extremely good at certain things. In The Talent Code, there's a lot of talk about the science of "myelin," the super-insulating substance that has recently been discovered and plays a major role in our understanding of memory and how humans acquire skills.

In the Talent Code you will learn about the three stages of skill aquisition, which are:

Deep Practice
Ignition
Master Coaching

The talent code focuses a lot more on what is the difference between normal, average practice and deep, dedicated practice. There's also a bigger section on the role of coaching.

Talent Is Overrated is, on the other hand, easier to read and focuses more on the wider applications of the new findings on inner ability (talent) versus dedicated practice, which both authors agree is the true secret to success.

For example, Talent is Overrated discusses how these ideas can be applied in the field of business or in our personal lives, not just if you intend to become a world-class violinist or tennis player.

Talent is Overrated has a more interesting discussion on how this new paradigm can be applied to influence education and raising extraordinary children.

I would say overall that Talent is Overrated is the more "fun" book to read, with more examples and stories, while "The Talent Code" is the more in-depth manual on the subject. If you find this subject fascinating, you should get both books and you will get more out of it that way.

To conclude I found Talent is Overrated an inspiring read that gave me great insights on how I can become a better, more accomplished person.

This is probably the most important book I've ever read. It CLEARLY states exactly what is necessary to accomplish whatever it is you desire to accomplish. What's more, it completely levels the playing field. For those of you (like myself) who believe that a "certain something" is required to become truly great, and that that "something" is a gift given to some, but not others (most likely, meaning "you"), this book will destroy that illusion. Remove the non-history and discover the facts, and you will discover -- thanks to the excellent research illuminated by this mind-boggling book -- that, like all the great men and women who have ever lived, YOU have the SAME "stuff" required to accomplish ANYTHING that you have ever admired in anyone else. Many of the insights he brings to light are truths I have uncovered simply through speaking to great luminaries myself, in person, as well as reading between the lines in many great biographies. The research backs up everything I have observed in these great individuals, and the myths he debunks are very valuable bits of information! The man is miraculously accurate, and the book is a recipe for living a great life -- for anyone actually interested! Not for the faint-hearted, or anyone looking for a shortcut to success OR a reasonable excuse for "NOT making it!" Perhaps the most convincing contribution to the author's point, the biographical information regarding Mozart, the epitome of "talent." He states that Mozart created his first great masterpiece at age 21... Anyone reading this book should ALSO know that during his 19th year, Mozart wrote most ALL of his Violin Concertos -- DEFINITELY masterpieces!!! So, my only complaint would be to lower Mozart's age of "maturity" as a composer by a year or two. This does nothing, whatsoever, to undermine the book's premise. The numbers (hours of "practice") still add up! Mozart most certainly did what was necessary before the age of 19 to explain how he was able to accomplish such great work by that age. This book is an inspiration to anyone who has ever wanted to accomplish anything great -- OR -- anyone interested in teaching others, raising kids or inspiring others to become better AT ANYTHING. Anyone buying a "How To..." book, in ANY FIELD, needs to purchase THIS book to go with it! What an absolutely wonderful book!

The main thesis of the book is that world class performance, in various areas, is not a specific innate talent, nor is it simple plain hard work. As the book claims, the secret is a process of "deliberate practice". The book does deliver his thesis in an interesting way, with examples and fluid writing style, but in the same time the thesis itself is somewhat weak, full of holes and easy to find counter examples to argue against it.

The author is Geoff Colvin, a journalist who writes for "Forune" magazine. The book is composed of 11 chapters that leads us from the author's realization that innate talent is overrated (Chapter 2), through his deliberate practice procedure that, according to the author, claims to provide a better explanation for world-class performance (Chapter 4). We then proceed to issues regarding how to apply the deliberate practice process (Chapter 8), and explore various aspects of motivation to explain why some people are more motivated than others (Chapters 10/11).

While reading I often got the feelings that the author jumps to conclusions from somewhat weak set of evidence, and as such the main ideas looks ad-hoc at times. For example, when trying to dismiss the importance of natural talent in the first chapters of the book, his main examples are Mozart (the composer) and Tiger Woods (the golf player). He points out very strongly to the fact that both had a very motivating fathers who were teaching them (or "deliberately practice" them) from early years. However it is also obvious that in both cases the kids had a great genetics as the fathers were successful (to some extent) in their respective fields (an athlete father in Tiger case, and Mozart's father was also a musician). I guess a stronger thesis will be a combination of both innate ability and early deliberate practice. In addition, there are several strong books who present a very strong arguments towards the requirement of genetic abilities to being world-class performance (e.g. a very interesting book called "Game On" by Tom Ferry).

There are several other examples of ad-hoc reasoning, that looks like the author were trying really hard to come up with them in order to strengthen his claims: Oil companies who are "looking further ahead", Baseball Pitchers who "understand the subtleties in body language that average pitcher cannot see" and many others such examples in Chapter 6 "How deliberate practice works". It seems that for many of these examples there can be other explanations besides what the author offered.

To sum up, this book is a good motivational book for people who needs such a boast, so it is a good graduation present. While the thesis is somewhat interesting and though provoking, it is not a strong theory in term of the information it is based upon. Following the reading, I'm certain as I was before that it is a combination of innate ability, hard work (or deliberate practice in the book's terminology) and luck.

True enough, the book illustrates case after case where world-class performance springs, not from some innate ability possessed at birth, but rather via effective practice. The author reaches into various disparate fields of endeavor to prove this point--golf (Tiger Woods), composing (both Mozart and the Beatles), chess (the Polgar sisters), stand-up comedy (Chris Rock), and others. Mr. Colvin bolsters this pattern by showing how, repeatedly, ten years of concerted effort preceded the respective breakthroughs for the individuals cited.

However--and this is where I find this thesis lacking--Mr. Colvin fails to explain the thousands of people who put in just as much effort, tried just as hard, and had the same teachers and mentors as those who achieved notable performance. For every Olympic champion, there are thousands who invested just as much practice time, who persevered through the same challenges, as those who won the gold. Thousands of garage bands who spent all of their waking hours searching for that big hit. Thousands, nay, hundreds of thousands, of corporate workers, toiling in excess of sixty hours a week, aspiring to be regional manager, let alone CEO. Why have these hundreds of thousands, or shall we say, millions, not achieved their goals? This book would lead the reader to believe it was purely the quality of one's preparation. Balderdash. This book is totally lacking in explaining why some achieve these heights, while most toil in obscurity.

In "Talent is Overrated," Geoff Colvin asserts that when we see talent in high achievers, we tend to credit their talent to natural ability; however, evidence suggests that in fact high achievers nurture their achievement with years of deliberate, mindful practice of specific skills. This mindful practice creates expertise and high capability, demonstrated by increased and more meaningful knowledge, psychosocial skills, behavioral decisions, and organic physical improvements to the brain.

Colvin gives examples of conspicuous people who we identify as talented who have in fact developed their skill by years of deliberate, mindful, constantly self-evaluating practice. Colvin also explains how businesses nurture talent by applying deliberate practice to the development of the skills of senior executives. Colvin admits the role of nature as an essential element of the nature and nurture components of success, but asserts that when we try to understand talent, we give almost unaccountable, undeserved credit to nature, and just because two legs are essential to play professional football doesn't make the 10,000 hours of conditioning any less essential.

Colvin also challenges us to ask ourselves in what skill do we want to become an expert, develop a 10,000-hour habit of choosing an element of that skill, and practicing and measuring at each instance against that element for up to three hours a day, working in "the learning zone" just a little bit harder than you can work and still call it fun, but a little less harder than would cause panic.

I decided to read this book while traveling on a whim, as it was recommended by the store (and their recommendations are usually pretty great). I'm so glad I did.

I've been fascinated with successful and powerful people my entire life--drawn to them. I've always felt an intense inner drive to achieve great things, and accomplish impossible feats. Reading this book was an eye-opening experience for me, and illuminated the path to success that I was never able to grasp until seeing the facts laid out.

To summarize the book in a single sentence: To become a world master in any specific field, you need to deliberately practice your art and push your boundaries every day for multiple hours.

The book takes you through research, history, and numerous case studies that examine high-profile achievers, in order to identify what things made them so great. In all cases, it was found that these individuals were generally not smarter, or gifted in any natural manner--but persevered through hours of hard work every day. And not just normal 'work'. These individuals identified the areas in which they were weak, and built specific practice sessions around improving these areas. Only through thousands of hours of continuous practice were these individuals able to achieve true mastery in their fields.

The message is clear: passion, dedication, and consistent practice can build you into a master of your domain.

Overall, the book was extremely inspiring, enlightening, and powerful. If you're interested in personal development, achievement, and greatness--you should not hesitate, and should purchase this book immediately. You can't afford not to.

The good news is that you can be as brilliant as Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, or even Mozart! The bad news is that you are probably a bit too late. But don't despair, there is still hope.

Geoff Colvin's book, Talent is Overrated (ISBN: 978-1591842941), repeated what Malcolm Gladwell mentioned in Outliers that there is a magical 10,000 hours for geniuses. Anyone can perform as brilliantly as a genius after about 10,000 hours of practice. In fact, many studies revealed that the majority of those prodigious geniuses -- Tiger Woods, Warren Buffet, Mozart -- did just that. The only difference is that they started early and so appeared to be childhood prodigies. If you trace their training history, you will find that they all achieved the "greatness" level after about 10 years' training.

I knew one such genius myself. It was first grade. He surpassed me oh so effortlessly on every subject and clinched #1 in class ranking without a hint of studying. I was so jealous of his brilliancy. He was the darling of every mother. "Why can't you be like him?" I wanted to hate him, but he asked me to play at his house, so I did.

As we played, his mother was tutoring his elder brother right next to us (we all live in small apartments, there wasn't much privacy then). And I found out why he invited me. I was his shield, his excuse, and his escape. Without I being there, his mother would have drilled and tutored him at the same time -- one effort for the benefit of two. Ha! He was no genius. In fact, poor guy, he was trapped by his under-performing brother so that he couldn't play everyday as I. We became best friends and, uh, his grades declined quickly.

So, if you wish to play like Tiger, invest like Warren, or compose like Mozart, all you have to do is put in about 10,000 hours of practice. On average, that would take about 10 years. That's the good news. The bad news is by the time you finished that 10 years, others would have done their 20 years. Where is the hope? In professional fields and business, most people don't really get better with time and 2,000 hours of practice are enough to make you shine. If you would spend half a day every week, that's 4 hours a week, you will be quite good in a year's time. If you keep it up, you will be super in about 3 years. It may be hard to be a brilliant golfer, but it takes surprising less to be better than everyone around you.

Are you willing to do 4 extra hours of practicing every week for a year? I have given this advice to many people, almost 100% had their lives get in the way: family, friends, kids, entertainment, social activities, etc. In the end, no one put in those hours.

Sadly, I concluded you really don't want to be a genius. You just want an excuse of not being one.

Colvin has collected all the most recent research into what makes for success, and he argues that it is focused, intelligent practice, by and large, that is the main ingredient. Not talent. Not innate genius. Not luck. Just intense, hard work.

Which is of course the argument of the Tiger Mothers everywhere...likely to the dismay of their children.

Experience alone does not constitute a way you can succeed. Research into those who have worked at a job for decades versus new hires show both groups to be surprisingly equal. Yet some go on to become CEOs, and some remain small managers, even if they have about the same years in the company. Why?

Contemporary athletes are breaking long held records, not because they are innately better than those born a century earlier, but because various methods have taught them how to achieve their goal better. They succeed because they have better information.

Or take the case of musical prodigies. Those who really achieved dramatic success, "researchers found...were practicing two hours a day" (p 19) as opposed to mediocre performers, who practiced only about fifteen minutes a day.

Mozart, of course, one of the most famous child prodigies ever, had a man who was a famous composer as a father. And his father kept him at the piano right from the time Mozart could toddle.

Of course, there are some areas where talent matters. If you're five feet two instead of six feet eight, deciding you want a career as a basketball player, no matter how hard you work, is likely to prove unrealistic.

For the first couple of chapters, I wasn't really impressed by the book, since the author was going more or less over the same examples and the same ideas, as Malcolm Gladwell did in his "Outliers". To summarize , talent is overrated, the world class greatest performers started early and worked really hard in their field; you can not reach a really great level of performance until you get 10,000 hours of practice in your field. I know, I got it...
The book started to get more interesting, when the author started asking further questions:
- Why most of us never reach this great level of performance? Surely, sometime in our thirties all of us get 10,000 hours of practice in our chosen field.
- Could deliberate practice methods from music, chess and sport be applied in business?
- How are age and performance really correlated? Do we have to start young to be great?
- Where does the passion come from? Is the drive for achieving the great performance internal or it could be developed externally?
- And the most interesting one: does it really worth the trouble?

I can't say that I liked the "business application" part - it looked too generic to me. I would argue that the application of the "deliberate practice" in organizations is totally impractical - and the author realizes it, too. However, when it came to the day-to-day life implications, many ideas from the book could be taken and implemented. The success will, obviously, depend on one's drive and commitment.
Just a couple of examples: how could an adult person significantly change his/her performance? How a parent could help the children to reach their greatest potential?

Even though some theories in the book are not backed up by the hard evidence, it was a good reading that prompted me to think. I definitely would recommend it to my friends, even if they would have time to read only the last two chapters.

This is one of the best nonfictions I've read in a while. It patiently and logical unfolds an explanation for why most "geniuses" don't contain some mystical power others don't have, but in fact put in hours and hours (most of the years of their life, in fact) practicing focused and effective drills in their skillset. The book's true goal is to demystify the idea of 'talent' and instead give you the confidence that you have much more potential than you previously saw possible, and in doing that it gives a practical starting point for mastering your craft or career. From world renowned chess champions, to sports legends like Tiger Woods & Emmitt Smith, to Business Tycoons like Warren Buffett, to expert violinists... Colvin shows that no matter what your discipline may be you can perform at a superior level by incorporating several different tips into your daily life routine. Among them, the most important tips I found were: 1) (Preferrably) start young... if that's not possible be prepared to devote years and years in the future of hard work to honing your craft if you want to perform like a 'genius' 2) Work with an expert to develop study/practice drills and routine that build skill at intense concentrating on repetitive fundemental tasks. Even though someone like myself can give you the gist of the author's thesis and recommendations, I think reading the book is invaluable because until you read his carefully laid out arguement, its hard to truly believe that such basic viewpoint on talent has been lost on us all these years-- (society has been) preferring to believe that talent is a magical phenonmenon that people are either born with or not.

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of a book by Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, which completely transformed my way of thinking about inner obstacles to pursuing our passions and making our dreams come true. Geoff Colvin's "Talent is Overrated" had a similar effect on my thinking about how exactly to go about being exceptional in one's chosen field. Drawing upon reams of psychological research from the past 30 years, Colvin patiently and thoroughly demolishes the myths that most people unthinkingly accept about talent and great performance: that talent means the ability to perform complex, demanding tasks with less effort than other people, that it is innate, that only a few people have it and that talented individuals show evidence of great potential from a very young age.

The science paints a very different picture of the prerequisites for great performance: traditional indicators of intellectual and artistic abilities do not accurately correlate with exceptional performance, there is little evidence of precocity, there does not seem to be a genetic component to great performance and great achievements do not just appear out of thin air, fully formed, overflowing from the genius's mind. What the evidence really shows is that all great performers have one thing in common: engaging in what Colvin calls 'deliberate practice' for many, many years before their peers and the general public take notice of them. This crucial concept includes the following aspects: 1) it is designed specifically to improve performance, 2) it can be repeated a lot, 3) feedback on results is continuously available, 4) it's highly demanding mentally and 5) it isn't much fun. In other words, the maxim that 'practice makes perfect' is accurate, but only if it is 'intelligently designed', supervised by expert mentors and conducted rigorously for years on end. This deliberate practice includes and has as an end result the accumulation of a vast amount of background knowledge in one's subject area. A related myth that Colvin demolishes is that creativity and innovation often benefit from not having vast knowledge of the current state of the field, of being able to 'start fresh' and look at things from a different angle. Instead, the research shows that the most innovative scholars and innovators truly 'stood on the shoulders of giants' as Newton put it, their deep knowledge of the field allowing them to see clearly the frontier of their discipline and where it could be extended.

This model of great performance can be applied with surprising consistency to many of the world's greatest artists, athletes, businessmen, musicians, intellectuals, writers and so on. To take just two examples: before achieving worldwide fame as a comedian, Chris Rock honed his stand-up routine for months at local clubs, working out by trial and error which skits elicited spontaneous laughs and which didn't. Benjamin Franklin, acknowledged to be America's 'first great man of letters' worked strenuously to master the art of prose step by step by rewriting essays from a world-renowed collection in unusual ways, each tailored to improving a specific aspect of his writing, such as sentence structure, vocabulary, etc. And he worked at it patiently for years, all the while holding down a busy printing job.

The upshot of this argument is that the prerequisites of great performance are potentially available to everyone. Of course, this has to be qualified with the understanding that in some fields, particularly sports, achievements limits are set largely by physiology. As Colvin observes, you are unlikely to become an Olympic gymnast if you are seven feet tall. Mental illness can also severely constrain one's potential for great intellectual or artistic achievement. Upbringing also has a huge role to play: nearly all the great performers were started on their path by consistent, intense input from parents or teachers from a very young age. And perhaps most importantly, many people simply do not have the immense willpower to devote decades of their life to painstakingly improving their performance in a field.

Nevertheless, those who do intensely desire to achieve greatness in a field can take heart in knowing that seemingly superhuman feats are achievable with lots and lots hard work and clear goals. As an aspiring screenwriter and teacher, desiring to excel in both fields, this book was immensely inspiring.

One drawback of the book, which is very clearly and elegantly written, is that Colvin concentrates a bit too much on the applications of this research for business and organizations, and his discussions are scattered incongruously throughout the book, interrupting the flow of the argument and diverting attention from more interesting case studies in fields like creative writing and teaching (only coincidentally the two things I am most interested in:). But on the whole it is a stunning, ground-breaking discussion of creativity and great performance that should be must-reading for anyone wanting to excel in a particular field. This book, like no other, hands you the keys to the kingdom.

Enjoyable even inspirational read, the basic premise of which is if you work really hard, I mean really really really hard from a very young age you might just become a world class performer. Colvin distinguishes deliberate practice and what most of us do. "Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts."

While it is possible to take issue with the simplicity of the argument, the author does provide compelling evidence that better practice does generate substantially better performance, e.g. every young violinist graduating from Juilliard can play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, a piece which the famous violinist Leopald Auer said was unplayable when the composer gave it to him in 1878. Today's best high school marathoners beat the 1908 Olympic winning time by twenty minutes!

So what is deliberate practice? According to Colvin it is designed specifically to improve performance. It can be repeated a lot. Feedback is continuous. It is mentally demanding and it isn't much fun. He illustrates this with the ongoing routine development of comedian Chris Rock.

I like the author's efforts to show how the concept can be applied organizations and the innovation process although he does stretch the concept a little as in suggesting that a stretch job is similar to deliberate practice.

Colvin fails to convince me that talent is overrated, but he sure does convince me that you won't reach the heights without an incredible amount of hard work and consistent practice. I have got a lot of positive reviews about my book Why Ireland Never Invaded America but as I write more consistently I am sure I could produce a better edition of it today. He also reinforces my belief that for me to continue to develop as a motivational humorist and keynote speaker I just got to keep working and indulging in deliberate practice.

Favorite anecdote. Warren Buffet's comment in his 2008 shareholder letter, "I've reluctantly discarded the notion of my continuing to manage the portfolio after my death - abandoning my hope to give new meaning to the term `thinking outside the box.' "

Also worth reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers: The Story of Success.

Geoff Colvin's study into the perplexing world of "talent" is an interesting piece of work, but perhaps a bit simplistic in its broadbased conclusions. The concept that "practice makes perfect" doesn't explain why some guys like Tiger Woods, who devote about as much energy into practice as other PGA Tour players, would be significantly better than anyone who ever played the game. There's something else going on with Tiger; practice alone doesn't explain what he's been able to accomplish.

Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. takes this study a bit further, and offers a more comprehensive explanation for the mysteries of talent ("deep practice" is mixed with "myelin", is supercharged with a powerful "ignition switch", and is enhanced by some special "mentor coaching"). All that requires something a little extra and can't be accomplished simply by dedicating your life to something. Seriously, if I had practiced golf twice as much as Tiger Woods, I still would have a tough time breaking 80; it's just not what I was meant to do, and thank God I realized it before I wasted my life trying to make the cut at the US Open.

We all have endeavors that we are better at than most, and which we love doing; that's where it pays to devote our energy---trying to get better at something we already seem to have a knack for. I agree with Colvin that "delibertate practice" is absolutely critical to achieving success in any profession or activity, however, there's much more to it than that.

Still, this is a worthy effort and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though its advice may be a bit overrated; so take it with a grain of salt.

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoff Colvin is a book that makes some important points about personal development. It is also one of the most overrated books of this type in a long time. And for most people it's likely to be an overpriced way to get same information. That takes some explaining.

Let's take care of the excellent part first. Geoff Colvin makes three important points that need to be made today. Not only that, he supports his points with both research and examples.

Talent is overrated as the title suggests. If you believe that it's a difference in talent that carves out the space between top performers in a field and the rest of the pack, you're probably wrong.

That's not to say that talent doesn't matter. If you want to make it to the NHL or Carnegie Hall or the C-suite you will need some talent. But all you need is enough.

What you will need is a lot of time working on your skills. Colvin trots out the magic 10,000 hour figure originally postulated by Herbert Simon. In other words, success takes hard work.

But not just any hard work. You'll get the best results if you consciously pursue excellence by practicing things that will make you better. Colvin says that the way to do that is something called "deliberate practice."

Here's where things get messy. Colvin spends the first sixty pages of the book saying things like "deliberate practice isn't what we think" and "deliberate practice is not what most of us mean by practice." And that illustrates one of the main problems with this book.

The book grew out of an article Colvin wrote in Fortune in 2006. He wrote another article when this book was published. Either is likely to give you as much as you need or want about deliberate practice.

If you want a bit more, you can go to the source. The July-August 2007 issue of the Harvard Business Review carried an article titled "The Making of an Expert." One of the co-authors of that was K. Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University. He's the authority Colvin cites often and he's been writing about "deliberate practice" for at least fifteen years.

My suggestion is that you read the Fortune articles first. If you think you need to know more, check out the book by thumbing through it at your local bookstore or using the Inside the Book feature on the store. You can also download the HBR article for $6.50.

My problem with this book is that there is both too much and too little. There is too much padding, trying to pump up an article into a book. There is too much mental foreplay, promising the reader that as soon as we get to the serious stuff on deliberate practice we'll all be so happy.

But, there is also too little. There's too little attention paid to other factors that influence success like coaching, family support, developmental assignments, and luck. There's virtually no discussion of the fact that for leadership and other business skill areas, learning and doing intertwine.

Talent Is Overrated might be the book for you. Or, it might not. But don't buy the book until you're sure.

The saying says that after 10,000 hours of work a person has enough practice to be a champion in his field. It seems true though many of the people work more than ten years and a fractions of them are defined as experts.
This book analysis this symptom. It gives examples of Mozart, Tiger Woods and others to en-light what it takes to become an expert.
Apparently Talent is only the staring point.
Most of the book describes the deliberate practice methods these qualified people do in order to succeed. It has some very good examples of practices each one of use can do to make our self better in our field.
The book resembles "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. It has though additional information that is worth knowing.

In the nature vs. nurture debate of contribution to high levels of achievement, Mr. Colvin sides almost exclusively on the nurture side. While such innate attributes such as intelligence and talent can provide one with an initial boost in performance, their effects fizzle soon after, and the equalizing factor becomes practice. A specific kind of practice a few hours a day for 10 years will yield the kind of results many practitioners aspire to, but never achieve. Mr. Colvin believes there is nothing mystifying about the achievements of Tiger Woods, Jerry Rice, Warren Buffet and Steve Ballmer. "Deliberate practice" is in almost all instances of world class performance the key factor.

"Deliberate practice requires that one identify certain sharply defined elements of performance that need to be improved, and then work intently on them." (p. 68 of hardcopay) "Continually seeking exactly those elements of performance that are unsatisfactory and then trying one's hardest to make them better places enormous strains on anyone's mental abilities. The work is so great that it seems no one can sustain it for very long." (p. 71)

Mr. Colvin uses a multitude of real world examples of high achievers to prove his point, and one in particular; a publicly announced human experiment, is a compelling one:

In the 1960s, a Hungarian educational psychologist was so passionate about his belief that geniuses are made, and not born or destined for greatness, that he publicly seeked a wife who would rear his children and allow him to create chess champions out of them. Mr. Laszlo Polgar's wife was no chess player, and he was a mediocre chess player himself who was subsequently beaten by his 5 year old daughter Susan. "At age 21, Susan went on to become the first woman ever to be named a grand master." Judith, the youngest of the three daughters achieved grand master status at the age of 15, the youngest player ever (male or female) to win that designation, beating American Bobby Fischer by a few months. Judith is also the current number one woman player in the world. Sophia, the middle sister and the laziest of the three achieved a women's world ranking of 6th.

While Mr. Colvin spends much of the book laying out the case that the sky is the limit for anyone with the wherewithal to put in the enormous amount of time practicing the right stuff, the party pooper is passion or motivation. A measly one chapter (the last one) is devoted to the second key ingredient (motivation) to produce world class performance, and unfortunately, in this area we are largely on our own. Once again, Mr. Colvin argues that even motivation is an attribute developed over time rather than inherited or emerged "suddenly and fully formed." It's just that no one really knows how so, although a multiplier effect theory is proposed; small levels of success and feedback snowball into passion over time.

Mr. Colvin's ideas fall in the face of a recent program implemented in China whereby DNA tests in kids summer camps attempt to predict IQ, emotional control, memory, athletic ability and more, according to an August 5, 2009 CNN article. This is China vs. Mr. Colvin. The jury is out on who's right.

So here's what it boils down to: If you aspire to be a world-class performer in whatever you desire, you must be willing to give up your marriage or other relationships (p. 204), social life or hobbies, and expect your self-confidence to develop into "egotism, egocentrism, and narcissism" (p. 205). You may turn into a self-absorbed prick, leaving "a wake of anger and betrayal". The good news is all of this is within anyone's grasp, not just a chosen few as most believe.

Geoff Colvin goes to great lengths to demonstrate that neither hard work nor inspiration provides a satisfactory explanation to why a few people are so talented and excellent at what they do (pp. 4-5, 20-23).

Colvin convincingly shows his audience that there is no free lunch behind great performance. Great performance results from deliberate practice which is hard to sustain over time (pp. 7, 66, 72, 171, 181). Many years of intense preparation are needed before making any kind of (creative) breakthrough (pp. 61-64, 149-51). No one can endure the pain and sacrifice of deliberate practice for decades without the benefit of both an internalized passion and the appropriate response to extrinsic forces that reinforce this passion at critical moments (pp. 172-74, 186, 188, 190-91). Colvin points out that top performance in any field often exacts a heavy personal toll. He also acknowledges that even if the marriages or other relationships of top performers survive, their interests outside their field typically cannot. Furthermore, Colvin does not hide the fact that no one who has ever achieved great performance could do it without enduring terrible difficulties along the way (pp. 204-06).

Furthermore, Colvin reminds his audience that nobody was born with passion. Passion has to be nurtured, developed (pp. 22, 50-51, 75-78, 81-83, 198). That is why extrinsic motivators such as attention, recognition, and feedback that are given in a non-controlling way are critical for that purpose. These constructive, non-threatening, task-focused motivators play an important role in the emergence of the "multiplier effect" that helps to put a student of a discipline in the driver's seat of his/her own great performance (pp. 49, 120, 192-93, 198, 200). Despite wide variations in the parents' backgrounds, professions, and incomes, the home environments of these students tend to be child-oriented by being both stimulating and supportive (pp. 170, 172-74). Think for example about Wolfgang Mozart or Tiger Woods (pp. 25-31). Colvin candidly acknowledges that there is still uncertainty about how the "multiplier effect" is really triggered. The research seems to point out that slightly better performance at an early age or in an environment where competition is sparse, no matter how attained, can generate the extra praise that solidifies internal drive for more intense practice (pp. 204-05).

In addition, Colvin demonstrates that high creative achievement and intrinsic motivation are highly correlated. They both require intense focus and concentration that are exacting and difficult to sustain over time (pp. 165, 188-89). This observation makes it more understandable why the people who reach the level of top achievers are rarely child prodigies. The vast majority of prodigies cannot sustain the strenuous effort required to become great performers (p. 197). Colvin also shows that many top performers are able to sustain top performance despite ageing by findings ways around the limitations imposed on them until an advanced age (pp. 84-85, 179-82). On top of that, top performance requires more time to master than in the past in knowledge-rich disciplines due to accumulated knowledge over time (pp. 157, 167-69). Nonetheless, great innovators welcome knowledge because they are nourished by it (pp. 102, 109-25, 151, 156). Excellent performers in most fields possess superior memory of information in their fields because of the mental models that they continuously build and organize (pp. 38-48, 85-98, 122-25). Colvin seizes this opportunity to debunk the conventional wisdom that the corollaries of adulthood are necessarily the shutdown of brain plasticity and the impossibility of adding new neurons well into old age (pp. 183-84).

Most of Corporate America could be excused to wonder how all the research mentioned above is relevant to how to run a business. Colvin strikes hard here by pointing out repeatedly that most organizations seem to be run in a way that prevents people from performing at top levels (pp. 7-8, 72-74, 108, 194). These organizations should take note that despite inauspicious career beginnings, some of the most successful people in business such as Jeffrey Immelt and Steven Ballmer changed their personalities in significant ways given the right environment (pp. 1-2, 49). Colvin identifies corporate culture as the main obstacle in the way of innovation whose source is human capital, no longer financial capital (pp. 11-15, 47-48, 126). New ideas are not really welcome. Risk taking is not endorsed (pp. 127-44, 163).

For example, most organizations do not allow people to work on pet projects about which they are internally fired up. Innovative companies such as 3M and Google stand out in that regard. What is important is that people understand the organizations' priorities and thus know where innovation will have the highest impact (pp. 164-65). Internal networking is critical for that purpose (p. 162). Furthermore, evaluations are often ineffective because they point out what people did wrong, not how to perform better, and mention attitude, personality traits that should be changed, all under the implicit threat of getting fired (pp. 73, 132, 194). Managers redirect people's careers based on slender evidence of what they have got (p. 20). In addition, promotions usually go with more responsibilities and less self-direction, turning too often these promotions into a burden rather than into a reward (p. 194).

Finally, Colvin asks provocatively why American society is comfortable about directing kids towards fields other than business at early ages, but queasy about daily training of kids to become a top-notch business executive by age twenty-one. Colvin rightly states that other societies could come to a different conclusion and gain a comparative advantage in the process (pp. 175-79). Most developed countries with the striking exception of Germany do not use the apprenticeship anymore (p. 177).

To summarize, Colvin convincingly demonstrates that great performance is not the privilege of a pre-ordained, talented elite, even if top performance requires some nourishing "compost" to blossom to its fullest (pp. 104, 206).

The full title, cover design, and even the description of the book don't fully convey what it's really about. I was expecting it to be a popular psychology sort of book about why talent is overrated - which it is, for the first 100 pages. Most of the second half is about how to apply the concepts (which are described well in other reviews, so I won't recap them here) to yourself as a business professional and to your organization as a whole. Yes, there is stuff about Tiger Woods & Mozart in here, but a lot of it is about Jeffrey Immelt, Jack Welch, Warren Buffet, and other superstars of the corporate world. There are tips on effective team building, mentoring, and setting up a corporate culture that's more conducive to fostering creativity and personal improvement.

There is nothing wrong with any of that - it's just not what I was looking for. I'm not in business, so much of the last 100 pages weren't interesting to me. However, if you're a business professional interested in personal development, this would probably be a good book for you. It's well-written and a fast read.

Deliberate practice is hard and not particularly enjoyable because it means you are focusing on improving areas in your performance that are not satisfactory. Thus, it stretches you. The book is written by a journalist, not a scholar. And it is well written and the journalist has done a good job in doing his homework. It is full of relevant references to research. It deals with the subject matter in a nuanced and informative way. Overall, it is very convincing.

I also juiced the best from these titles:
Think And Grow Rich: The Personal Study Edition
The Master Key System: The Personal Study Edition
Path To Prosperity - Mastery Of Destiny - Acres Of Diamonds: The Personal Study Edition
The Science of Getting Rich: The Movie - 2 Disk Set

I was so inspired by this book that I wrote a blog post about it. See [...] It has given me new focus on the skills I need to deliberately practice to be the world-class private conflict resolution services provider I want to be. I see much more clearly why we have people in positions of authority who aren't actually leading, despite all of the skills, experiences, and "talent" they are perceived to have. I see what is in my way and which actions I need to take to get over, under, around, or through it. I've been using the excuse of not being talented enough in areas throughout my life, when what I really needed to do was the tedious work of practicing. *Ugh* Yet *Yay!*

Colvin set out to answer this question: "What does great performance require?" In this volume, he shares several insights generated by hundreds of research studies whose major conclusions offer what seem to be several counterintuitive perspectives on what is frequently referred to as "talent." (See Pages 6-7.) In this context, I am reminded of Thomas Edison's observation that "vision without execution is hallucination." If Colvin were asked to paraphrase that to indicate his own purposes in this book, my guess (only a guess) is that his response would be, "Talent without deliberate practice is latent" and agrees with Darrell Royal that "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." In other words, there would be no great performances in any field (e.g. business, theatre, dance, symphonic music, athletics, science, mathematics, entertainment, exploration) without those who have, through deliberate practice developed the requisite abilities.

It occurs to me that, however different they may be in almost all other respects, athletes such as Cynthia Cooper, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Lorena Ochoa, Candace Parker, Michael Phelps, Vijay Singh, and Tiger Woods "make it look so easy" in competition because their preparation is so focused, rigorous, and thorough. Obviously, they do not win every game, match, tournament, etc. Colvin's point (and I agree) is that all great performers "make it look so easy" because of their commitment to deliberate practice, often for several years before their first victory. In fact, Colvin cites a "ten-year rule" widely endorsed in chess circles (attributed to Herbert Simon and William Chase) that "no one seemed to reach the top ranks of chess players without a decade or so of intensive study, and some required much more time." The same could also be said of "overnight sensations" who struggled for years to prepare for their "big break" on Broadway or in Hollywood.

Colvin duly acknowledges that deliberate practice "is a large concept, and to say that it explains everything would be simplistic and reductive." Colvin goes on to say, "Critical questions immediately present themselves: What exactly needs to be practiced? Precisely how? Which specific skills or other assets must be acquired? The research has revealed answers that generalize quite well across a wide range of fields." Even after committing all of my time and attention to several years of deliberate practice, under the direct supervision of the best instructor (e.g. Hank Haney, Butch Harman, or David Leadbetter) I probably could not reduce my handicap to zero but I could lower it under those conditions. Colvin's insights offer a reassurance that almost anyone's performance can be improved, sometimes substantially, even if it isn't world-class. Talent is overrated if it is perceived to be the most important factor. It isn't. In fact, talent does not exist unless and until it is developed...and the only way to develop it is (you guessed it) with deliberate practice. When Ben Hogan was asked the "secret" to playing great golf, he replied, "It's in the dirt."

Others have their reasons for thinking so highly of this book. Here are three of mine. First, Colvin's observations and suggestions are research-driven rather than based almost entirely on theories developed in isolation from real-world phenomena. He commits sufficient attention to identifying the core components of great performance but focuses most of his narrative to explaining how almost anyone can improve her or his own performance. He reveals himself to be both an empiricist as he shares what he has observed and experienced and a pragmatist who is curious to know what works, what doesn't, and why. I also appreciate Colvin's repudiation of the most common misconceptions about the various dimensions of talent. For example, that "is innate; you're born with it, and if you're not born with it, you can't acquire it." Many people still believe that Mozart was born with so much talent that he required very little (if any) development. In fact, according to Alex Ross, "Mozart became Mozart by working furiously hard" as did all others discussed, including Jack Welch, David Ogilvy, Warren Buffett, Robert Rubin, Jerry Rice, Chris Rock, and Benjamin Franklin. Some were prodigies but most were late-bloomers and each followed a significantly different process of development. About all they shared in common is their commitment to continuous self-improvement through deliberate practice.

Here's another reason I hold this book in such high regard. Throughout his narrative, Colvin inserts clusters of insights and recommendations that literally anyone can consider and then act upon to improve her or his individual performance as well as helping to improve the performance of a team of which she or he is a member. For example:

1. Attributes of deliberate practice (Pages 66-72)
2. What top performers perceive that others do not notice (Pages 89-94)
3. Benefits of having a "rich mental model"(Pages 123-124)
4. Rules for peak performance that "elite" organizations follow (Pages 128-136)
5. Misconceptions about innovation and creativity (Pages 149-151)
6. How innovators become great (Pages 159-161)
7. How to make organizations innovative (Pages 162-166)
8. What homes can teach organizations (Pages 172-175)
9. The "drivers" of great performance (Pages 187-193)
10. How some organizations "blow it" (Pages 194-198)

Colvin provides a wealth of research-driven information that he has rigorously examined and he also draws upon his own extensive and direct experience with all manner of organizations and their C-level executives. Throughout his narrative, with great skill, he sustains a personal rapport with his reader. It is therefore appropriate that, in the final chapter, he invokes direct address and poses a series of questions. "What would cause you to do the enormous work necessary to be a top-performing CEO, Wall Street trader, jazz, pianist, courtroom lawyer, or anything else? Would anything? The answer depends on your answers to two basic questions: What do you really want? And what do you really believe? What you want - really want - is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment." Corbin has provided all the evidence anyone needs to answer those two questions that, in fact, serve as a challenge.

Colvin leaves no doubt that by understanding how a few become great, anyone can become better...and that includes his reader. This reader is now convinced that talent is a process that "grows," not a pre-determined set of skills. Also, that deliberate practice "hurts but it works." Long ago, Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." It would be "tragically constraining," Colvin asserts, for anyone to lack sufficient self-confidence because "what the evidence shouts most loudly is striking, liberating news: That great performance is not reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone."

What a fabulous book finally discarding the myth that talent is the most important factor in success. I totally agree that talent is simply overrated. If it was all about talent, then Michael Jordan would have made the varsity team in high school. So what separates the great performers from the rest? The author argues that it is "deliberate practice," which is not what most of us think of as practice. Deliberate practice is extremely demanding and is not fun at all. It focuses on continuous improvement and it is hard and it hurts. It challenges current skills rather than reinforcing the old habits.

When certain people achieve high success, the general public might see it as "instant success," but the authors say that it usually takes a decade of deliberate practice. From my experience, the only people who believe that talent is the key are the ones who do not find much success in anything. The ones that are successful almost always say that talent had nothing to do with it. This is a great book, and I appreciate how complete the author's research is.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Geoff Colvin deals with a fascinating and worthwhile subject: How do extraordinary, world-class performers get to be so good? This is an outstanding book!

The basic argument of the book is that high level skill is achieved primarily through tons and tons of hard work over a long period of time. (In other words, I'll have to write a lot more book reviews in order to start getting more people to find my reviews "helpful".) So, rather than innate skill or some kind of mysterious "giftedness" being the cause of exceptional performance, Colvin writes, "[t]he factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice." The concept of "deliberate practice"--which is a little bit more rigorous and demanding than what might be thought of as "practice" in the more general sense--is explained with some detail in the book.

In addition to disputing the idea of some kind of special giftedness, Colvin disputes the idea of high IQ or special innate ability for memory as explanations for superior ability and achievement. In fact, his chapter that deals with the development of memory, among those who require it in their field of endeavor, was very enlightening.

"Talent Is Overrated" deals with the study of peak performance in a broad range of fields of including the arts, science, business, chess, music, writing and sports and provides interesting stories and examples of the world class achievers in the various disciplines. This is helpful because it is interesting to see that the principles of great performance apply--at least in a basic sense--in a pretty general way to all fields of endeavor.

Leaders will be interested to note that Colvin explains the application of some of the key concepts of exceptional performance to organizations rather than just looking at the matter as it applies to individuals.

Because the bottom line of great performance is identified as years of "deliberate practice", Colvin states that the "deepest question about great performance" is this: "Where Does The Passion Come From?" It's a fantastic question and I'm glad that he dealt with the issue. Why do the world class performers submit to the long, exhausting, difficult, often painful work that is required to achieve their level of mastery? Is the motivation intrinsic or extrinsic, or a little of both? That is the subject of the last chapter of the book.

I find the message of "Talent Is Overrated" to be extremely encouraging and motivating because it convincingly reports that you do not have to be blessed at birth in some super-human way in order to develop exceptional skill in your field--I'm already out of luck if that's the case. This means high-level performance is possible--with a lot of hard work--even for us mere mortals.

Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL

Geoff Colvin expanded his Fortune article, "What It Takes to Be Great," into an evidence-based book titled, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. Colvin renounces the notion that leaders are born with innate talent, and shows how disciplined forms of deliberate practice lead to remarkable success. The practice he describes may not be the practice that many of us follow, but his presentation is compelling about how the right kind of repetitive practice leads to extraordinary success. You may be just 10,000 hours away from world-class performance. After reading Talent Is Overrated, you may think differently about talent, and about Mozart. Read it to find out why.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)

The book picks important research about achievement and makes a it accessible to the average reader. However, after one acknowledges--absolutely--the importance of family/world class coaching/deliberate practice, this book refuses to acknowledge talent. Those of us who are considered high level teachers, and who work in the spectrum of 5 year olds through collegiate level, know that talent cannot be ignored. For over 40 years, I have seen motivated parents and their motivated children work exceptionally and consistently hard at the piano--and some move ahead to extremely high levels and others don't. Some have great ears, others have fingers that instantly find where they need to go; a little later, we find that even with the preceding two gifts, they might have have "soft" fingers with all sorts of double joints that won't provide big power; or some other quirk in personality, human warmth, ability to communicate--that keeps them at the "highly accomplished" but not "great" levels. However, the ones that zoom ahead have that extra thing called talent, which may include physical, psychological and emotional gifts.

I've gone through this book now after having finished my MBA and being a manager for a number of years and many of the findings in the book are very insightful. It definitely fills the gap between what people assume makes people great and the research that shows, with a great amount of evidence, what the research shows may people great.

This book kept my interest throughout and as a manager I have shared many of its findings with my team at work as it has suggested to me clear areas of improvement within my organization that can be used to become a world class organization as well as ways that I could improve myself.

Most importantly it really started to get me thinking about the role of a parent and school in education and how one could set the foundation for grooming great talent at an early age.

Geoff Colvin, utilizing well researched logic, makes a convincing argument that talent is not necessarily God given, but perhaps can be developed. He attributes the evolution of human talent to a term he calls "deliberate practice." Most of us engage in the practice of some type of activity, whether it be a hobby like chess, a sport like golf, or even our income generating work. But Colvin distinguishes our normal practice with that of driven life long high achievers whose practice resembles more of challenging current skills, rather than rehashing comfortable maneuvers. He claims that with thousands of hours of constant pushing of our comfort envelopes, even us mere mortals can become expert in what we do.

Certainly, for those of us other than the select few who lead their professions and trades, these are encouraging words. But encouragement goes just so far. The rest requires an intense commitment that we either don't have the patience, the drive, or the time to perform.

But there are some intriguing possibilities for those with young children. Following Colvin's advice could be just the thing you need to turn your little Bobby into the next Bobby Fischer, or your little tiger cub into the next Tiger Woods.

Geoff Colvin's words are worth the read. However, his studies are based at least partially on not yet conclusive information and likely require more study and additional validation before it changes the way Dr. Spock would have us all raise our next generation.

This book offers a proposition that is both motivating and sobering: If you want to be a great success you needn't worry about your gentics, background, or even IQ. The secret to success isn't a secret: deliberate practice - which means mindful, involved practice of your craft.

So why doesn't everyone do it? Because its damn hard...that's the sobering part.

He also shatters myths about creativity - the poet or musician who sits on a hillside and in a flash from the muse creates a masterpiece. Creativity is just hard steady work - something most honest artists admit - and he dispels the two most famous myths in this department - Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Mozart's symphonies.

caveats (or why its only 3 stars):
I understand, as a writer, presumably one who is looking to rake in corporate speaking and consulting fees, Colvin advocates a blank slate theory, but this flies in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
In order to brush this aside, he creates a strawman argument about there not being a 'golf gene' or a 'chess gene' (for the latter example he cites a famous case of three daughters who were taught by their professor father to become grand master chess champions). Well, no one said there a chess gene, but the genes of a intelligent professor and his equally intelligent wife produced daughters capable of becoming grand chess masters- or grand mathematician for that matter. This professor, to my knowledge hasn't carried out the same experiment with children from sub Saharan africa. On the other hand, years of training from near birth has not resulted in one non-west african descended 100 meter sprinter in the finals of the last half dozen olympics - Russia and China who have created athletes of world class caliber in other fields have yet to touch this one.

This aside, Colvin does make a powerful case that hard MINDFUL work can make up for what you might lack in the genes department and leaves little excuse, except laziness and self choice, for not being the person you want to be and for that alone its worth reading.

This is one terrific book that is motivating and liberating all at the same time. I love the concept of deliberate practice and I also appreciate the undervalued "passion" of true achievers. The one concept that the author wrote about that blew me away was that true genius is the capacity for determined practice. What a great concept, to actually know what it takes and do it is a real genius rather than someone "blessed with a gift". There are so many pearls of wisdom in this book that it is one that I plan on rereading in a couple of years.

Wow! I've been picking up clues on this work in Marcus Buckingham's books and interviews. It is an analysis of meta studies (a meta-meta study) of outstanding performance across fields ranging from musical performance (violin), to musical composition (Mozart) to chess, tennis, golf, business, and exceptional memory.

The author's well-defended claim is that the core commonality between excellent performers is not general intelligence (IQ) or innate talent, but something he calls "Deliberate Practice," which is a particularly deeply focused practice that exhausts both mind and body, requiring extreme levels of commitment to maintain over the necessary period of years.

Though the author dismisses the importance of "talent" and "IQ," he in-turn acknowledges, ponders, and ultimately confesses to lack an adequate answer for "where does the necessary extreme motivation come from?"

I had asked myself several times whether it's for primacy effect that I prefer Gladwell's Outlier to this. Other things being equal, Colvin had been so repetitive in some messages and had tried too hard to give advice to his business executive readers. Pardon me to say that the whole book can be trimmed down by a quarter without compromising the content at all. On the other hand, Colvin failed to explain satisfactorily how "Deliberate Practice" makes the difference in performance amongst people with same amount of practice. The jargon is great, the explanation is not. Readable, but not really helpful for self improvement.

An inspiring book. Historically it seems that many (most?) great accomplishments have been driven primarily by hard work and intense, critical practice rather than by supposed "innate" talent. I find myself mentally returning to this book's thesis often. Certainly innate talent is often a factor in success, but it is by no means the determining factor, and perhaps not even the biggest factor.

I'd heard about this book from a David Brooks column in the New York Times. I'm so glad I did! Mr. Colvin has assembled a mammoth amount of research to show that those who succeed (barring physical or mental disabilities) can accomplish almost anything they seek to do. This isn't some fluff book about "believe in yourself." It's backed up with facts, statistics, and pokes holes in some of the most famous "natural gift" stories we always hear about. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and I will reread it on a regular basis. I think this book would be a perfect gift for someone struggling with a goal they have or recent graduates.

I found myself skipping entire paragraphs and pages because the author could not succinctly describe what he was trying to say. This book is aimed at people of below average intelligence, who need pages and pages of explanation to communication a simple point. I'm glad I downloaded this book instead of paying for it.

Colvin set out to answer this question: "What does great performance require?" In this volume, he shares several insights generated by hundreds of research studies whose major conclusions offer what seem to be several counterintuitive perspectives on what is frequently referred to as "talent." (See Pages 6-7.) In this context, I am reminded of Thomas Edison's observation that "vision without execution is hallucination." If Colvin were asked to paraphrase that to indicate his own purposes in this book, my guess (only a guess) is that his response would be, "Talent without deliberate practice is latent" and agrees with Darrell Royal that "potential" means "you ain't done it yet." In other words, there would be no great performances in any field (e.g. business, theatre, dance, symphonic music, athletics, science, mathematics, entertainment, exploration) without those who have, through deliberate practice developed the requisite abilities.

It occurs to me that, however different they may be in almost all other respects, athletes such as Cynthia Cooper, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Lorena Ochoa, Candace Parker, Michael Phelps, Vijay Singh, and Tiger Woods "make it look so easy" in competition because their preparation is so focused, rigorous, and thorough. Obviously, they do not win every game, match, tournament, etc. Colvin's point (and I agree) is that all great performers "make it look so easy" because of their commitment to deliberate practice, often for several years before their first victory. In fact, Colvin cites a "ten-year rule" widely endorsed in chess circles (attributed to Herbert Simon and William Chase) that "no one seemed to reach the top ranks of chess players without a decade or so of intensive study, and some required much more time." The same could also be said of "overnight sensations" who struggled for years to prepare for their "big break" on Broadway or in Hollywood.

Colvin duly acknowledges that deliberate practice "is a large concept, and to say that it explains everything would be simplistic and reductive." Colvin goes on to say, "Critical questions immediately present themselves: What exactly needs to be practiced? Precisely how? Which specific skills or other assets must be acquired? The research has revealed answers that generalize quite well across a wide range of fields." Even after committing all of my time and attention to several years of deliberate practice, under the direct supervision of the best instructor (e.g. Hank Haney, Butch Harman, or David Leadbetter) I probably could not reduce my handicap to zero but I could lower it under those conditions. Colvin's insights offer a reassurance that almost anyone's performance can be improved, sometimes substantially, even if it isn't world-class. Talent is overrated if it is perceived to be the most important factor. It isn't. In fact, talent does not exist unless and until it is developed...and the only way to develop it is (you guessed it) with deliberate practice. When Ben Hogan was asked the "secret" to playing great golf, he replied, "It's in the dirt."

Others have their reasons for thinking so highly of this book. Here are three of mine. First, Colvin's observations and suggestions are research-driven rather than based almost entirely on theories developed in isolation from real-world phenomena. He commits sufficient attention to identifying the core components of great performance but focuses most of his narrative to explaining how almost anyone can improve her or his own performance. He reveals himself to be both an empiricist as he shares what he has observed and experienced and a pragmatist who is curious to know what works, what doesn't, and why. I also appreciate Colvin's repudiation of the most common misconceptions about the various dimensions of talent. For example, that "is innate; you're born with it, and if you're not born with it, you can't acquire it." Many people still believe that Mozart was born with so much talent that he required very little (if any) development. In fact, according to Alex Ross, "Mozart became Mozart by working furiously hard" as did all others discussed, including Jack Welch, David Ogilvy, Warren Buffett, Robert Rubin, Jerry Rice, Chris Rock, and Benjamin Franklin. Some were prodigies but most were late-bloomers and each followed a significantly different process of development. About all they shared in common is their commitment to continuous self-improvement through deliberate practice.

Here's another reason I hold this book in such high regard. Throughout his narrative, Colvin inserts clusters of insights and recommendations that literally anyone can consider and then act upon to improve her or his individual performance as well as helping to improve the performance of a team of which she or he is a member. For example:

1. Attributes of deliberate practice (Pages 66-72)
2. What top performers perceive that others do not notice (Pages 89-94)
3. Benefits of having a "rich mental model"(Pages 123-124)
4. Rules for peak performance that "elite" organizations follow (Pages 128-136)
5. Misconceptions about innovation and creativity (Pages 149-151)
6. How innovators become great (Pages 159-161)
7. How to make organizations innovative (Pages 162-166)
8. What homes can teach organizations (Pages 172-175)
9. The "drivers" of great performance (Pages 187-193)
10. How some organizations "blow it" (Pages 194-198)

Colvin provides a wealth of research-driven information that he has rigorously examined and he also draws upon his own extensive and direct experience with all manner of organizations and their C-level executives. Throughout his narrative, with great skill, he sustains a personal rapport with his reader. It is therefore appropriate that, in the final chapter, he invokes direct address and poses a series of questions. "What would cause you to do the enormous work necessary to be a top-performing CEO, Wall Street trader, jazz, pianist, courtroom lawyer, or anything else? Would anything? The answer depends on your answers to two basic questions: What do you really want? And what do you really believe? What you want - really want - is fundamental because deliberate practice is a heavy investment." Corbin has provided all the evidence anyone needs to answer those two questions that, in fact, serve as a challenge.

Colvin leaves no doubt that by understanding how a few become great, anyone can become better...and that includes his reader. This reader is now convinced that talent is a process that "grows," not a pre-determined set of skills. Also, that deliberate practice "hurts but it works." Long ago, Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right." It would be "tragically constraining," Colvin asserts, for anyone to lack sufficient self-confidence because "what the evidence shouts most loudly is striking, liberating news: That great performance is not reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone."

What a fabulous book finally discarding the myth that talent is the most important factor in success. I totally agree that talent is simply overrated. If it was all about talent, then Michael Jordan would have made the varsity team in high school. So what separates the great performers from the rest? The author argues that it is "deliberate practice," which is not what most of us think of as practice. Deliberate practice is extremely demanding and is not fun at all. It focuses on continuous improvement and it is hard and it hurts. It challenges current skills rather than reinforcing the old habits.

When certain people achieve high success, the general public might see it as "instant success," but the authors say that it usually takes a decade of deliberate practice. From my experience, the only people who believe that talent is the key are the ones who do not find much success in anything. The ones that are successful almost always say that talent had nothing to do with it. This is a great book, and I appreciate how complete the author's research is.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Geoff Colvin deals with a fascinating and worthwhile subject: How do extraordinary, world-class performers get to be so good? This is an outstanding book!

The basic argument of the book is that high level skill is achieved primarily through tons and tons of hard work over a long period of time. (In other words, I'll have to write a lot more book reviews in order to start getting more people to find my reviews "helpful".) So, rather than innate skill or some kind of mysterious "giftedness" being the cause of exceptional performance, Colvin writes, "[t]he factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice." The concept of "deliberate practice"--which is a little bit more rigorous and demanding than what might be thought of as "practice" in the more general sense--is explained with some detail in the book.

In addition to disputing the idea of some kind of special giftedness, Colvin disputes the idea of high IQ or special innate ability for memory as explanations for superior ability and achievement. In fact, his chapter that deals with the development of memory, among those who require it in their field of endeavor, was very enlightening.

"Talent Is Overrated" deals with the study of peak performance in a broad range of fields of including the arts, science, business, chess, music, writing and sports and provides interesting stories and examples of the world class achievers in the various disciplines. This is helpful because it is interesting to see that the principles of great performance apply--at least in a basic sense--in a pretty general way to all fields of endeavor.

Leaders will be interested to note that Colvin explains the application of some of the key concepts of exceptional performance to organizations rather than just looking at the matter as it applies to individuals.

Because the bottom line of great performance is identified as years of "deliberate practice", Colvin states that the "deepest question about great performance" is this: "Where Does The Passion Come From?" It's a fantastic question and I'm glad that he dealt with the issue. Why do the world class performers submit to the long, exhausting, difficult, often painful work that is required to achieve their level of mastery? Is the motivation intrinsic or extrinsic, or a little of both? That is the subject of the last chapter of the book.

I find the message of "Talent Is Overrated" to be extremely encouraging and motivating because it convincingly reports that you do not have to be blessed at birth in some super-human way in order to develop exceptional skill in your field--I'm already out of luck if that's the case. This means high-level performance is possible--with a lot of hard work--even for us mere mortals.

Dan Marler
Oak Lawn, IL

Geoff Colvin expanded his Fortune article, "What It Takes to Be Great," into an evidence-based book titled, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. Colvin renounces the notion that leaders are born with innate talent, and shows how disciplined forms of deliberate practice lead to remarkable success. The practice he describes may not be the practice that many of us follow, but his presentation is compelling about how the right kind of repetitive practice leads to extraordinary success. You may be just 10,000 hours away from world-class performance. After reading Talent Is Overrated, you may think differently about talent, and about Mozart. Read it to find out why.

Rating: Four-star (Highly Recommended)

The book picks important research about achievement and makes a it accessible to the average reader. However, after one acknowledges--absolutely--the importance of family/world class coaching/deliberate practice, this book refuses to acknowledge talent. Those of us who are considered high level teachers, and who work in the spectrum of 5 year olds through collegiate level, know that talent cannot be ignored. For over 40 years, I have seen motivated parents and their motivated children work exceptionally and consistently hard at the piano--and some move ahead to extremely high levels and others don't. Some have great ears, others have fingers that instantly find where they need to go; a little later, we find that even with the preceding two gifts, they might have have "soft" fingers with all sorts of double joints that won't provide big power; or some other quirk in personality, human warmth, ability to communicate--that keeps them at the "highly accomplished" but not "great" levels. However, the ones that zoom ahead have that extra thing called talent, which may include physical, psychological and emotional gifts.

I've gone through this book now after having finished my MBA and being a manager for a number of years and many of the findings in the book are very insightful. It definitely fills the gap between what people assume makes people great and the research that shows, with a great amount of evidence, what the research shows may people great.

This book kept my interest throughout and as a manager I have shared many of its findings with my team at work as it has suggested to me clear areas of improvement within my organization that can be used to become a world class organization as well as ways that I could improve myself.

Most importantly it really started to get me thinking about the role of a parent and school in education and how one could set the foundation for grooming great talent at an early age.

Geoff Colvin, utilizing well researched logic, makes a convincing argument that talent is not necessarily God given, but perhaps can be developed. He attributes the evolution of human talent to a term he calls "deliberate practice." Most of us engage in the practice of some type of activity, whether it be a hobby like chess, a sport like golf, or even our income generating work. But Colvin distinguishes our normal practice with that of driven life long high achievers whose practice resembles more of challenging current skills, rather than rehashing comfortable maneuvers. He claims that with thousands of hours of constant pushing of our comfort envelopes, even us mere mortals can become expert in what we do.

Certainly, for those of us other than the select few who lead their professions and trades, these are encouraging words. But encouragement goes just so far. The rest requires an intense commitment that we either don't have the patience, the drive, or the time to perform.

But there are some intriguing possibilities for those with young children. Following Colvin's advice could be just the thing you need to turn your little Bobby into the next Bobby Fischer, or your little tiger cub into the next Tiger Woods.

Geoff Colvin's words are worth the read. However, his studies are based at least partially on not yet conclusive information and likely require more study and additional validation before it changes the way Dr. Spock would have us all raise our next generation.

This book offers a proposition that is both motivating and sobering: If you want to be a great success you needn't worry about your gentics, background, or even IQ. The secret to success isn't a secret: deliberate practice - which means mindful, involved practice of your craft.

So why doesn't everyone do it? Because its damn hard...that's the sobering part.

He also shatters myths about creativity - the poet or musician who sits on a hillside and in a flash from the muse creates a masterpiece. Creativity is just hard steady work - something most honest artists admit - and he dispels the two most famous myths in this department - Coleridge's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner and Mozart's symphonies.

caveats (or why its only 3 stars):
I understand, as a writer, presumably one who is looking to rake in corporate speaking and consulting fees, Colvin advocates a blank slate theory, but this flies in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
In order to brush this aside, he creates a strawman argument about there not being a 'golf gene' or a 'chess gene' (for the latter example he cites a famous case of three daughters who were taught by their professor father to become grand master chess champions). Well, no one said there a chess gene, but the genes of a intelligent professor and his equally intelligent wife produced daughters capable of becoming grand chess masters- or grand mathematician for that matter. This professor, to my knowledge hasn't carried out the same experiment with children from sub Saharan africa. On the other hand, years of training from near birth has not resulted in one non-west african descended 100 meter sprinter in the finals of the last half dozen olympics - Russia and China who have created athletes of world class caliber in other fields have yet to touch this one.

This aside, Colvin does make a powerful case that hard MINDFUL work can make up for what you might lack in the genes department and leaves little excuse, except laziness and self choice, for not being the person you want to be and for that alone its worth reading.

This is one terrific book that is motivating and liberating all at the same time. I love the concept of deliberate practice and I also appreciate the undervalued "passion" of true achievers. The one concept that the author wrote about that blew me away was that true genius is the capacity for determined practice. What a great concept, to actually know what it takes and do it is a real genius rather than someone "blessed with a gift". There are so many pearls of wisdom in this book that it is one that I plan on rereading in a couple of years.

Wow! I've been picking up clues on this work in Marcus Buckingham's books and interviews. It is an analysis of meta studies (a meta-meta study) of outstanding performance across fields ranging from musical performance (violin), to musical composition (Mozart) to chess, tennis, golf, business, and exceptional memory.

The author's well-defended claim is that the core commonality between excellent performers is not general intelligence (IQ) or innate talent, but something he calls "Deliberate Practice," which is a particularly deeply focused practice that exhausts both mind and body, requiring extreme levels of commitment to maintain over the necessary period of years.

Though the author dismisses the importance of "talent" and "IQ," he in-turn acknowledges, ponders, and ultimately confesses to lack an adequate answer for "where does the necessary extreme motivation come from?"

I had asked myself several times whether it's for primacy effect that I prefer Gladwell's Outlier to this. Other things being equal, Colvin had been so repetitive in some messages and had tried too hard to give advice to his business executive readers. Pardon me to say that the whole book can be trimmed down by a quarter without compromising the content at all. On the other hand, Colvin failed to explain satisfactorily how "Deliberate Practice" makes the difference in performance amongst people with same amount of practice. The jargon is great, the explanation is not. Readable, but not really helpful for self improvement.

An inspiring book. Historically it seems that many (most?) great accomplishments have been driven primarily by hard work and intense, critical practice rather than by supposed "innate" talent. I find myself mentally returning to this book's thesis often. Certainly innate talent is often a factor in success, but it is by no means the determining factor, and perhaps not even the biggest factor.

I'd heard about this book from a David Brooks column in the New York Times. I'm so glad I did! Mr. Colvin has assembled a mammoth amount of research to show that those who succeed (barring physical or mental disabilities) can accomplish almost anything they seek to do. This isn't some fluff book about "believe in yourself." It's backed up with facts, statistics, and pokes holes in some of the most famous "natural gift" stories we always hear about. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time, and I will reread it on a regular basis. I think this book would be a perfect gift for someone struggling with a goal they have or recent graduates.

Geoff Colvin discusses how great performers develop. He draws upon substantial data to support his conclusion that great performers develop through deliberate practice, insightful coach and social support structure over a decade or so. A coach helps identify how to extend past comfort zone into learning zone while avoiding panic zone. Several of the principles can be applied to organizations. An early advantage / praise often kick starts great performers but tremendous amount of discipline and effort are required for sustained great performance.

Last fall my friend Ron gave me a copy of Geoff Colvin's Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, which is far and away my favorite business book of the past year. (And, yes, I read more than one.)

Why do some hardworking people remain in a job for many years without increasing the quality of their work? Why do they fail to make the transition from average to outstanding performers? Too quickly we assume that the difference lies in innate abilities, those natural talents and gifts bestowed upon us at birth. Not so, argues the author. What distinguishes top producers from others is hard work, and not just any kind of work, but work that has at its foundation the specific concept of "deliberate practice."

What is deliberate practice? Deliberate practice is characterized by five basic elements: (1) it is designed specifically to improve performance, (2) if can be repeated a lot, (3) feedback is continuously available, (4) it is highly demanding mentally, and (5) it isn't much fun. (66-78)

You've heard the saying, "Practice makes perfect." No, it doesn't. Only perfect practice makes perfect. If I go to a batting cage daily and flail away at hundreds of pitched balls, month after month, I will probably show modest improvement in my hitting. But my untutored approach won't be disciplined or consistent, and the progress of my improvement will soon level off. In fact, the more I hit the more I will reinforce bad habits. Without an instructor's help and feedback, I'll waste a whole lot of time. Hours of hard work with little benefit. What's more frustrating than to work hard but produce little?

What I need is deliberate practice, which requires a teacher who gives me not only instruction but also immediate feedback. Marked improvement will follow as he instructs me in the mechanics of hitting, and then watches me practice, reinforcing what's right about my batting stroke, correcting what's wrong, and working with me over many months, even years. Hitting will never become automatic, because as I reach each new level of proficiency in striking the ball, additional areas of improvement will become clear to my instructor, first, and, and then to me.

Obviously, deliberate practice takes time. After evaluating top performers in a variety of fields, Colvin concludes, "not one, not even the most `talented' performers, became great without at least ten years of very hard preparation." (61-62) Others have called this the "Ten Thousand Hour Rule" - approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is required to become first-rate in any profession. Deliberate practice requires such sustained concentration that four or five hours a day is about the upper limit. (71) To put this in perspective, to reach 10,000 hours of deliberate practice requires a commitment of four hours a day, five days a week, for ten years. It's easy to see why so few make the transition from average to great. Also clear is the threat of constant distractions - from cell phones, computers, and PDA's - all of which, if we are not careful, deplete our powers of concentration, as well as hobbies that routinely consume enormous amounts of time. We must be able to distinguish between hobbies that refresh us from those that control us. Time is precious, and must be closely guarded.

People often attribute the early successes of people like Warren Buffet, Tiger Woods, and Mozart to their natural talent, and label them child prodigies. Certainly, each possessed raw natural and intellectual abilities. Nevertheless, what sets them apart from equally gifted people is deliberate practice, and each of these men put in their 10,000 hours earlier than most because of parental example and a rigorously enforced and supervised practice schedule. Tiger Woods would not be the golfer he is today if he first picked up a club at age 18 and started hitting golf balls. Demands of higher education, jobs, and family life would probably have made it impossible, that late in life, for him to achieve 10,000 hours of deliberate practice devoted to a game.

The book has a helpful chapter on cultivating the habits of deliberate practice among the members of organizations. Parents will want to consider Colvin's thoughts on how a supportive home environment helps a child to start developing early.

I've heard people say that success is more about "I will" than "IQ," an assertion the author's studies support. He writes, "IQ is a decent predictor of performance on an unfamiliar task, but once a person has been at a job for a few years, IQ predicts little or nothing about performance." (45) But even hard work is not enough. Without deliberate practice at its foundation, much human potential is wasted.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in improving performance. Whether it's preaching or teaching, honing sales skills, becoming a top actor or musician, or mastering the intricacies of a complicated technology field or organizational system, each of us should be building our work on the concept of deliberate practice.

I am a very picky reader, and this turned out to be one of the best books I've ever read. I was really surprised, since I often feel most books are overrated.

Colvin brings out some very controversial points, but they are well-researched and pretty convincing. (Example: Though Mozart may have been a genius, his father was mainly responsible for his output. I won't convince you here, but read the book.) He also offers practical suggestions for anyone who wants to become great--or at least a great deal better--at music, golf, writing, business, or anything, really.

I'm trying out some of his suggestions. This book could have a profound effect on my life. I highly recommend giving it a try.

I listened to the audio version of this book and loved it! It is chalked full of relevant and valuable information. I will be buying a copy to add to my library for future reference. I love the way the author uses real life examples and studies to prove his points in the book. He presents things in a clear and concise way that is easy to understand and remember. I will be recommending this book to friends and colleagues.

The best business books might be marketed toward business readers, but they really address a wide variety of fields. Using that guideline, Talent Is Overrated is one of the best business books I've read for some time.

As a parent, I was especially drawn toward the book's discussion of how great performers, in the broadest sense of that word, develop. In almost every case great performers had a supportive childhood environment that recognized the child's interest early on, encouraging or even enforcing deliberate practice that would only pay fruit years later. Adults can catch up to a degree, but because of real-world responsibilities, they just don't have time to lay the foundation of deliberate practice needed to achieve greatness.

Because this wasn't a parenting book, the author didn't offer much guidance on how to decide which fields you should steer your child toward. But if pressed, I suspect he would say that the distinguishing factor for great performers wasn't inherent interest but deliberate practice. In other words, just pick a field, any field, put your kid under a fairly strict practice regimen, and greatness will follow.

I can't follow the author all the way down that road, since I believe that God calls people toward a variety of roles in the world, and that sense of calling, rather than a desire to be great for ourselves, provides the best motivation for deliberate practice or study in any field.

Yet I do think the author makes an important point: developing your God-given talents and inclinations takes sustained, long-term effort, and one of my primary jobs as a parent is to help my kids think through their calling and pursue it with the rigor worthy of a mandate from God himself.

This book is fun, well written and easy to read, it contains many curious facts and the question it answers is this:

Is some innate talent a prerequisite to success ?

Surprise, the answer is no. You don't have to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth. All that you can ever achieve is done through hard work. Deliberate practice, as the author calls it. You want to excel in something - prepare to work daily. For many years straight. Then, you may succeed, or you may not. So much for being talented.

The problem is, I don't see who could benefit from reading this book. It's a catch-22 situation:

If you are an adult, and you haven't been applying the deliberate practice principle in whatever field you have chosen for the last few years already, it doesn't matter if you take the author's point to heart - it's already too late. On the other hand if you have, this book will at most encourage you in your addiction to work but will not be the driving force. Should you decide to apply the ideas of deliberate practice to your children, chances are - you are going to ruin their lives. And if you are yourself a kid, you don't read such books and you don't want to be pushed by your parents.

Either way, this book will have nothing to do with your success. Exactly like the talent.

Rating 3.25
This book points out how Talent is not all what we think it is. He goes into story after story of greatly famous people in sports or business like Tiger Woods and Jack Welch. Colvin points to years of practice and not just practice but deliberate study is what propelled these people to a greater success than most people can ever think of attaining. He emphasis' how we think people just showed up great when in reality it is years of dedication and learning that has brought the success not just a stroke of talent.

This is a good book, not great, not life changing, but it does point out that talent truly is over-rated. In a nutshell the most succesful are those who have continually done it and for a longer time. The chess girls having started at a very young age, Tiger Woods having started very young, countless musicians and athletes. There is a quote by Aristotle that goes "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit." and this book pretty much proves that.

I picked this book up kind of as a self-help book, as i read many of those and it proved to be worth it. Lots of good enough, but nothing life changing. Id recommend you buy it.

I saw this book at the Juilliard bookstore so I thought, "If Juilliard thinks it's worth reading it must be"! Initially it seemed that way, but was definitely disappointing as one progressed. First of all, journalists as authors typically use a LOT of case studies - which is good and interesting some times but also that gets old and doesn't contribute to measurable conclusions (think Malcolm Gladwell - barf)! Unless you like him. Basically this book got some awesome marketing. I really like the idea it is conveying and I do agree with it, however this particular book is nothing new.

I should have read this before all of my 20 self-help motivational, focus driven books. This books allows you to break down the myth of having talent. You will not only be really surprised by the findings in this book, but you will also be inspired. Read this first, then pick up the rest of the books. Matter of fact, after reading this book, you might not need another book to get you jump started.

I enjoyed this book as it fully deconstructs the myth that talent is inherent. Sure, we all might be born with certain tendencies, but consistent effort really is needed for the achievement of true talent. While the book could basically be summed up by saying 'talent requires effort' all the fascinating stories and examples provide a bit of inspiration to put in such effort. The book didn't change my life, but I did thoroughly enjoy it and got through it pretty quickly as well. I listened to the audio version and thought the narrator was a pleasure to listen too.

Great insight into how world class performers become world class. It's all about "Deliberate Practice" and lays out how any mere mortal can achieve greatness. Got a few interesting view points on things, such as recording yourself while deliberately practicing whatever you're trying to become world class in. Next stop, buying a miniature camera.

The author would lead you to believe that most of us have the ability to become a world class NFL receiver like Jerry Rice or composer of Mozart's stature through "deliberate practice". Deliberate practice is practice that is focused on the areas in your domain where there is the greatest need for improvement. It is not simply practice makes perfect; it is the kind of practice; it is designed practice that makes perfect. For aspiring pianists, it is hours of solo practice, not group practice, not concerts, but solo practice - and it is not fun. For Jerry Rice it was mountain running and weight training to build up his pattern running ability and durability.

I enjoyed reading Talent Is Overrated. I believe its main thesis of "deliberate practice" is a very useful concept for educators and parents alike. However, I believe the case for key considerations outside of practice - such as natural talents or inclinations - is understated. For example, Jerry Rice is six foot two and he used every inch of that height and reach to make some of the greatest football receptions ever. Most kids are not genetically predisposed to be someday six foot two and all the deliberate practice in the world will not change that.

Perhaps a better, but less engaging title for this book would be " Practice Is Underrated". In any case I found the book's main thesis of deliberate practice to make for worthwhile and enjoyable reading.

The premise of this book is fairly obvious; success is less defined by innate talent and more by practicing with a purpose. The book uses examples of athletes and musicians (Jerry Rice and Tiger Woods to name a few) that had a well structured practice rountine in that it was centered upon areas that a coach identified as needing improvement. I didn't view anything in this book as exceptionally groundbreaking. If you read Malcom Gladwell's Outliers, it is more of the same with a few new case studies.

I was left wanting more in the area of how this philosphy is applicable to those of us who aren't athletes or musicians in a field that features an extremely narrow focus or required skill set. The author covered the issue with a few broad strokes but I felt as though the bridge between the theory and real world application was very much lacking.

In my opinion, I would recommend Outliers by Malcom Gladwell as an alternative. Same subject matter, more compelling examples and an easier read front to back.

All the best.

JC

This book provided research and practical examples supporting the effectiveness of deliberate practice, even in activities we often don't think of practicing. It dramatically changed my perspective of "talent" by substituting supposed natural ability for detailed, consistent work.

This book has shown me exactly why I have done better
than I ever thought possible in some areas of my life and lagged
embarrassingly behind my peers that have less talent and intelligence than me in other areas.

The way you practice and train for success is THE KEY.

This book shows you the practice recipe used by some of the most successful
people in history to go from ordinary to legendary.

"A must read. Blows away the myth that 'talent' is God given, and some people have it, most don't. In fact, everyone has the potential to achieve Greatness. There is no correlation between IQ and achievement. Greatness is the result of deliberate practice and persistence. 20 years of practice is broadly what it takes. The quality of practice, and what you actually practice are important. It's nothing to do with time served. Anyone can become great at something. They just need to want it badly enough. And Greatness often isn't a pleasure. It's hard work and often painful to achieve. Mostly, it requires significant sacrifice. Most organisations and people fail to achieve Greatness, there is a large pool of latent capability that is switched off by "executive development programmes" and the like, which nurture the few and ignores the hopes and desires of the many! "

I loved reading this book. The approach to analyzing great performance through the use of occasional narratives engaged me. Throughout the read I was constantly making connections with my view of performance and achievement. I wasn't particularly interested in the organizational performance chapters, yet the were very insightful. Great final principles as well. I certainly recommend this book to anyone even curious about talent.

Talent Is Overrated is a short easy read on an interesting topic. It aims to explain how the world-class performers become that, and how they are different from the rest of us. The conclusion is that it is mostly a matter of hard work. Not too surprising.

What might be surprising is that their seems to be considerable academic research on this topic now. Colvin references this work and explains it to the reader. The key finding is that talent plays very little role in the success of even the most eminent in each field. It mostly comes down to years of deliberate practice; that is practice that challenges and extends your abilities. In fact ten years of deliberate practice seems to be the a common minimum.

Colvin claims this is encouraging since it means that you don't have to be born with talent to excel. However you do have to invest many years. How do you catch up with those who started to learn when they were children? Apparently you cannot.

In the end Talent Is Overrated seems overly simplistic. Is it really just a matter of deliberate practice? Apparently the literature says that good teachers and mentors are needed too, but Colvin only discuses that briefly. I would have liked to see more on how to find those good teachers and mentors.

Geoff Colvin is a journalist who works for Fortune magazine. Talent Is Overrated really shows that influence. Much of the discussion is on how the talent research applies to business. It is well written, in an easy to read style. I did not notice any typos or errors. There are bunch of anecdotes and examples from real peoples lives.

It is also a bit sloppy with a number of quotes repeated several times. In addition there were a few contradictions for example younger doctors seem to be better then older by some measure versus a study by GE's Jeff Immelt which found that experience is the most important determinant of success. The finding about doctors is mentioned several times but the contradiction is not really resolved.

Talent is Overrated is a fine book. However there is nothing original here. I have to wonder if reading the Harvard Business Review article it is based on, "The Making of an Expert" by K. Anders Ericsson, might have been time better spent.

This book focuses on what everyone needs to hear which is, "Increased effort on the right behaviors equals increased success." The world today get's so focused on that they don't have the talent to be as good as someone else. This book gave me the wake up call that I needed. Now, I believe more than ever that I just need to ramp up my focused effort!!!

Jason Forrest
President
ShoreSelect
[...]
[...]

The premise of this book is that it takes more than talent or hard work to become remarkable in your field. You have to practice specific skills, even the unfun ones. Now, while this shouldn't be news to anyone, it's nice to have a well researched book remind you how important it is.
The author is long winded and rather boring. Listing to the monotone narrator of the audio version made it a lot worse. I would definitely suggest buying the book or finding it at the library and skimming it over, rather than listen to the full 6 hour drudge of the audio version.

Really enjoyed this read. Very informative, well researched and full of fascinating information. If I had one niggle it would be that the book could have been a bit shorter. However, as someone who works with clients to help become high performers, it was well worth the purchase.

Presents the ideas associated with Deliberate Practice and how it has a lot more to do with people who excel at their endeavors than any kind of "natural talent" does. Well worth the read if you are looking to understand what separates high achievers and everyone else and also outlines what you need to do to start along the (long) road to excel in your chosen field.

The book can loosely be divided into two parts. The first is dedicated to driving home the idea that all extraordinary skill and ability at endeavors comes from practice (something I happen to by and large agree with). Practice in this case being only hazily defined, but with the general idea that it is:
a) hard
b) not the task itself
c) slightly beyond the current skill level of the trainee
d) sometimes is the task itself (Yeah, this is one of those books that has no problem contradicting itself)

The section rambles relentlessly, often providing no evidence, or anecdotal evidence, or siting studies without telling you what the study was, or siting Malcolm Gladwel. That last one really galls me, because this portion of the book could best be described as a clumsy re-rendition of Blink and Outliers. And M. Gladwel already has a problem with not being a reliable resource.

From this bearable, but undistinguished start the book takes a nose dive in the second section, which I will loosely describe as MBA / Corporate BS. The author talks about several CEOs, and a few companies, and then muddles about with some point related to development of personel being a critical corporate function. This section reads like he's trying to promote himself as a management consultant. Let's just say he was doing much better when he was literally ripping off Gladwel.

[...]

Through the book he promises to end with a look at how people become motivated to practice, but then fails to deliver, other than some rehashed bits from outliers.

This builds on and expands some of the best sellers that preceded it about what really makes world class performance. The arguments presented about what sets apart the very best, and how a person can get there if sufficiently motivated, are both perusasive and real world. Anyone who is seriously interested in reaching excellence in their chosen field ow well-loved amateur pursuit, can find something to use here. A legitimate value.

Kind of the tradition of books like "Tipping Point", Colvin's book was hard to put down. The book's basic premise is that numerous hours of focused practice are what create talent. There are no short cuts! Every HR director, parent, and teacher should read this book.

the basic premise is sound, clearly stated and backed up with empirical data. I value the summary as well, that the research points the way but does not offer conclusive proof. there is much to consider.

If you think talented people don't have to work hard or learn a lot to become top performers, this book might be useful to you.
If you are looking for more than general recommendations for corporate executives, look elsewhere.
If you want a reasoned review of the science, look elsewhere.

Overall, I felt this book was a good read, well organized, and fairly easy to understand. The chapters were well divided and the overall message of the book was good. However, I felt that more could have been given on the implementation of "deliberate practice" from both a personal and organizational point of view.

Geoff Colvin has written an excellent book but the first half gives you 90% of what you are going to get from the book. The second half tries to give businesses advice on how to use the information but it basically succeeds in repeating what was already said in the first half of the book. The advice in the second part is too generic to be really useful. However, I highly recommend reading this book and "Outliers" together. These two books will help you think about excellence and genetics.

This book would have made a decent magazine article. It does make some interesting points, which could be laid out in a few pages. But the author goes on and on, trying to stretch his hypothesis into this cleverly titled 200-plus page book, in a clear attempt to get into your wallet. Do yourself a favor, read the description and customer reviews, and you'll know everything there is to know about it. Save yourself a few bucks. You'll be glad you did.

I have almost completed the book at the time of writing this.I defenitely agree with Geoff Colvin's opinion.Currently I am doing a Clinical Training with a Homoeopathic Physician named Dr.Javed Hingora.He is 38 year old(one year younger than me.)He started dispensing medicines to assist his father who is also a Homoeopathic Physician at the age of 9.By the time he started his formal Medical education ,he knew much much more than a normal physician.Thw analysis and the selection of the remedy left me amzed and I did think he had a huge ''Talent'', but after reading the book ,I had long discussions with him regarding his career.It emerged that while his classmates were busy at the play ground after school,he was learning Homoeopathy and learning from his father who had formal degrees in Modern Medicine,Ayurveda(An Indian System of Medicine) and Homeopathy.So ,it was not talent alone,but sheer hard work of a focussed type and careful mentoring from his father.This also makes us realise the importance of parenting and how huge a difference it can make in the lives of future generations.I would defenitely advise any body who wish to get ahead in any field to read this book.

Dr.Pramod Chandran

This book has been invaluable to me. I used its suggestions to improve my productivity in work. That improvement was definitely noticed by my supervisor. I read Outliers after the fact and I thought it was less inspirational. If you are simply interested in the science behind success, I suggest Outliers. If you are interested in implementing those techniques into your own life, this book is an excellent choice.

This book has some very insightful information that quite frankly is very consistent with my own experience and that which I have observed in my children and those who have reported to me. If you are in a position of training and mentoring others, it is a recommended read.
PYB
Construction Manager

Actually we live in a world where many people are considered successful who have little to no talent. All they have is a rich well connected family and they hire the best PR team, ad space, stylist, etc. For example, Kim Kardashian. Or Drew Barrymore. Practice all you want, but if you are under 5'10" your chance of becoming a runway model is less than 1%. Many musicians reply on modern technology such as Autotune (for music) and Photoshop editing/airbrushing (to look good in pictures). Beyonce's latest albums credits over 70 writers and producers. Sure of course practice helps with most things, but there are so many other variables at work. And what one considers talent, say a NFL players talent, an intellectual might see an NFL player as an nothing but overpaid jock chasing around a ball.

If you're reading this I assume you already know this book is about the same thing as Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers'. Basically if you practice something for a lot of hours you get good at it, and in turn become a great person. It sounds a little silly to put it like that, but that's probably because it is silly. The focus of this book is to explain in greater detail, with a focus on businesses, how a person can apply the lessons of practice so that they may become great at what they do.

Geoff Colvin focuses on something Malcolm Gladwell skims over, which is that most people will spend an easy 10,000 hours doing something over the course of their life and yet they never become a highly successful person. The reason, he explains, is because these people are simply doing it, they are not truly practicing to get better. This "deliberate practice" where a person practices with clear goals and coaching feedback is what makes you better, he claims. And he provides anecdotes and research showing how great athletes trained extensively and how great musicians are only separated from mediocre musicians based on how much time they spend practicing.

The only problem with any of this is, it's a bunch of baloney. Perhaps there is no such thing as talent, I certainly couldn't provide an authoritative answer. But I do have a problem with research that equates talent with precociousness, or talent with being a natural without practice or training. I have a background in science, and I have to say, you always need to take these sparse sociological and psychological studies with one or two grains of salt. Yes these researchers don't think there is such a thing as talent. They wouldn't be the first researchers to believe something that is in fact totally off-base and nonsensical, and have evidence to prove it. Their methodology, their logic, their empirical approach: any of it could be flawed and you the reader would never know.

More importantly, this lesson that you need "deliberate practice," or 10,000 hours of practice, or whatever else they come up with, it doesn't mean anything. 'Talent is Overrated' spends a lot of time talking about musicians and athletes, you know why? Because this self-help only applies to musicians and athletes. Perhaps it is a hard fact to face, if you want to master a physical skill at a relatively high level in comparison to the world's best, you'll have to practice for years and years and years. As long as the world's best have been practicing, coincidentally enough. If you want to do something else, like start a successful business, write a novel, hybridize flowers, or basically any of the nearly infinite number of things you can do with your life other than play a musical instrument or be an athlete, then no, this book doesn't have much to tell you. And I should point out for athletes, that's only true for about half of sports. There are plenty of examples of people picking up a sport in their late teens and soon after going pro.

I think everybody deserves every source of motivation they can find to achieve their goals or dreams in life. If this book gives you a shot in the arm, then I suppose it has done it's job even if it is a lot of nonsense. Anyone really can accomplish great things with the right attitude and the right support behind them. But it also shouldn't limit anyone, which I feel books like this do, in largely suggesting that greatness comes only from starting to practice something when you're five. Bill Gates didn't have a lifetime of practice starting Microsoft when he started Microsoft (if fiddling around with computer punchcards as a kid counts as practice for creating and leading a successful corporation, then what doesn't count as practice?) Shakespeare didn't have 10,000 hours of deliberate practice writing verse-based plays when he penned Romeo and Juliet. And I'm completely positive Geoff Colvin and Malcolm Gladwell haven't practiced since the age of five, ripping off someone else's Harvard Business Review article to write books which claim to offer the easy keys to success in life, yet they've both met incredible success doing so.

So in summation, this is another nice self-help book which won't tell you much you didn't already know, and is based off a fad idea that practicing like an Olympic athlete or a musical virtuoso leads to great success and achievement in life. This book shouldn't be called 'Talent is Overrated', it should be called 'Why Professional Violinists Are So Good: Because They Practice a Lot'.

Colvin sets-out to answer the question "What does it take to be world class?" The answer turns out to be hard work and dedication. This answer opens up a world of possibility for everyone, while at the same time limiting our excuses.

wjk

I really enjoyed listening to this book during my commute, but I had a problem with the MP3 formatted CD. I realize that there's a migration to this format, but it can't be played in a car CD player. Forced me to download to my iPod and listen thru that medium. Would be great if that was highlighted for me before I bought it.

Otherwise, a very enjoyable book.

Whenever someone use the "talent argument" one can now point this book in their direction. No more excuses, it requires focus hard work @ extended period of time if one wants to excel.

I applied this in my life and my career and although I am not a multimillionaire, yet :-) I can see myself getting better and most importantly, I enjoy my work more because I am focus on self development.

Sure I still believe that one has to have some talent to begin with but it is what one does with it that counts. I see talent as inherited trust fund, it depends on how one uses it.

This is an excellent read that should be required reading for coaches and teachers. At the end of the day, you find that there is so much more required to be outstanding in all endeavors than simply what we explain away with "he is just blessed with god given talent." He offers great examples to illustrate those things that lead to greatness and challenges you to see a different path.

Talent is Overrated put elegant words and real science to a concept I have preached for years; that talent has very little to do with success. I bought copies for my employees and my kids. My husband and I are both successful creative business owners and this book is endorsed by both of us. Thank you Geoff Colvin!

This book is fascinating in the respect that it is simple, but so very true. When you read it, what you realize is that to become great at anything, and I do mean anything, it requires a certain persona that most of us just don't have. Also, after I had completed the book, there was this certain something that I had that I felt no one else had--a certain knowledge that I could be great at anything I wanted to become great at--it is a must read book for anyone that wants to become truly great at whatever.

While most of the information presented in this book is certainly valid the process in which it is presented is a bit redundant. The ideas and information could have easily been presented in one or two paragraphs. Most of the material presented in this book is extraneous and could be described as fluff or filler. Most of what this book expresses can be summed up in four words "perfect practice makes perfect". Who knew?

Colvin challenges the view (or better, the excuse for us seemingly less talented) that greatness comes from an innate talent...Using anecdotal examples(e.g. Tiger Woods and Mozart), as well as cited scientific studies in academia, Colvin frames a strong argument that "deliberate practice" trumps innate talent when it comes to maximizing performance. He also provides some great ideas for application of the deliberate practice concept in professional development and team-building in organizations. Great, practical, insightful book!

This book is a complete waste of time. Out of everything in this book only about 5% of it is useful advice, and the advice is nothing ground breaking and you've probably heard it before. 95% of this book is just fluff. The author is extremely boring and annoying. He talks to the readers like they are complete idiots. To get a simple point across that could easily be explained in 1-2 pages, the author ends up going on and on and on and on and on and on for ever telling.

Excellent book with very strong evidence to support the different arguments.

It shows that there is still time to work on your objectives & goals, and it open our eyes on opportunities for our children that we didn't have.

Geoff Colvin sets out to prove a thesis, that talent is overrated, and discover what separates world class performers from everybody else, according to the book's title. He does neither. What he does do is argue his points vehemently. First of all, he never defines his terms. The two terms that are key to his book are talent and success. Having not defined his terms, he is unable to measure them. Not being able to measure his undefined terms, he has no chance to prove anything. In the end he tells us that he isn't sure there even is such a thing as talent. Of course there wouldn't be for something that is undefined and unmeasured. I suggest that Colvin is wrong, dead wrong, about his thesis, and fails utterly on his discovery. Here's why. Colvin contends that hard work leads to success, not talent. Read almost any other book on success and you will find that a large number of factors are involved in achieving success. Things like motivation, opportunity, quality of training, natural ability, inclination, and resources. Next, Colvin's sample size and mix is totally inadequate and acceptable. He only looks at highly successful people. He never considers whether there are hundreds of thousands of people out there working just as hard as those that succeed, or maybe even harder, but failing to reach the same levels of success. What separates those people from those that succeed? I am not going to speculate, but just say that Colvin does not tell us. He doesn't define his terms, he has no system of measurement, he has no valid research approach, and he proves nothing, absolutely nothing. What he does do is show us that a select sample of highly successful people did not get by on talent alone; they had to work hard for what they achieved. This is a commendable accomplishment, but does not make up for the shortcomings of his work, which is to prove his thesis and discover what separates successful people from everyone else.

Geoff Colvin's book is a well-written and concise exploration of the principle of deliberate practice, and how it can apply to the business world. It owes a great deal of debt to Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers," and it'd be interesting to read the two alongside each other, as "Talent is Overrated" does provide some useful correctives to some of Gladwell's arguments. For example, Gladwell believed that the ten-thousand hour rule produced talent and genius, but that's an oversimplification -- ten-thousand hours of deliberate practice is just a base from which talent and genius can spring.

Anyone interested in developing a higher level of performance in their chosen field should seriously consider the information presented in this book. It was easy to read, and intellectually stimulating at the same time.

There are some interesting ideas in this book, but it fails to take into account the factor of "luck" as part of being successful in business. The examples are exclusively with "famous" business people, and not necessarily all the professional managers that work for them.

This is an interesting summary of other work on these ideas that are much more interesting. I suggest skimming it at the bookstore, writing down some of the other works the book cites and then reading these sources. Since this book is mainly a summary, it's doesn't have many applicable ideas. You'll need to go to the other books it cites in order to get real suggestions for applications. This book is a good start though.

" It features the stories of people who achieved world-class greatness through deliberate practice-including Benjamin Franklin, comedian Chris Rock, football star Jerry Rice, and top CEOs Jeffrey Immelt and Steven Ballmer."

What ? Steven Ballmer ? The monkey dance guy ? The one that is pushing the Bill Gates Microsoft from first enterprise in computer industry to last place in new domain like mobility ?
This is one of the most unsuccessful CEO and hated by his own people. Even the shareholders are trying to kick him...

I stopped reading there, I don't want to be as successful as him ...

This book is a complete waste of time. Out of everything in this book only about 5% of it is useful advice, and the advice is nothing ground breaking and you've probably heard it before. 95% of this book is just fluff. The author is extremely boring and annoying. He talks to the readers like they are complete idiots. To get a simple point across that could easily be explained in 1-2 pages, the author ends up going on and on and on and on and on and on for ever telling.

Excellent book with very strong evidence to support the different arguments.

It shows that there is still time to work on your objectives & goals, and it open our eyes on opportunities for our children that we didn't have.

Geoff Colvin sets out to prove a thesis, that talent is overrated, and discover what separates world class performers from everybody else, according to the book's title. He does neither. What he does do is argue his points vehemently. First of all, he never defines his terms. The two terms that are key to his book are talent and success. Having not defined his terms, he is unable to measure them. Not being able to measure his undefined terms, he has no chance to prove anything. In the end he tells us that he isn't sure there even is such a thing as talent. Of course there wouldn't be for something that is undefined and unmeasured. I suggest that Colvin is wrong, dead wrong, about his thesis, and fails utterly on his discovery. Here's why. Colvin contends that hard work leads to success, not talent. Read almost any other book on success and you will find that a large number of factors are involved in achieving success. Things like motivation, opportunity, quality of training, natural ability, inclination, and resources. Next, Colvin's sample size and mix is totally inadequate and acceptable. He only looks at highly successful people. He never considers whether there are hundreds of thousands of people out there working just as hard as those that succeed, or maybe even harder, but failing to reach the same levels of success. What separates those people from those that succeed? I am not going to speculate, but just say that Colvin does not tell us. He doesn't define his terms, he has no system of measurement, he has no valid research approach, and he proves nothing, absolutely nothing. What he does do is show us that a select sample of highly successful people did not get by on talent alone; they had to work hard for what they achieved. This is a commendable accomplishment, but does not make up for the shortcomings of his work, which is to prove his thesis and discover what separates successful people from everyone else.

This book is pathetic and full of anecdotal, both questionable and incorrect, evidence. After the first few chapters it becomes a pain to get through every page.

If you enjoy reading "self-help" literature with consultant type gibberish then this may be the book for you. Essentially the author's message is to practice the skills necessary for whatever trade you wish to excel in. While I don't disagree with that point, it doesn't warrant a 200 page explanation. Practice, make goals, make plans, welcome criticism, perform self-evaluations, etc.

The author also doesn't do himself a favor by frequently referencing the "success" of Jack Welch. Surely GE's "success" can't be a function of an economic boom and a stock market bubble. Let's look at the legacy Mr. Welch left on GE in the last decade. He transformed GE into an over-bloated conglomerate, digressing from it's innovation roots and becoming a firm largely dependent in financial services. GE had stagnant growth after the internet boom and greatly underperformed relative to it's American peers. In the financial of crisis of 2008, what was perceived as a conservative, well-diversified company, GE saw it's stock price get utterly destroyed. Mr. Welch is surely a model of success.

It really amazes me how so many authors downplay the role of chance, especially when it comes to business. At least when it comes to Mozart's playing the piano, the skill is measurable. People certainly underestimate the role of randomness and chance in business decisions. Sometimes it's just being at the right place at the right time. Furthermore, businesses usually boom and bust during the same time as their peers. Can you really credit the CEOs during the booms? What measurable skills apply in business? Charisma, leadership, and other subjective qualitative traits?

There are some interesting ideas in this book, but it fails to take into account the factor of "luck" as part of being successful in business. The examples are exclusively with "famous" business people, and not necessarily all the professional managers that work for them.

This is an interesting summary of other work on these ideas that are much more interesting. I suggest skimming it at the bookstore, writing down some of the other works the book cites and then reading these sources. Since this book is mainly a summary, it's doesn't have many applicable ideas. You'll need to go to the other books it cites in order to get real suggestions for applications. This book is a good start though.

" It features the stories of people who achieved world-class greatness through deliberate practice-including Benjamin Franklin, comedian Chris Rock, football star Jerry Rice, and top CEOs Jeffrey Immelt and Steven Ballmer."

What ? Steven Ballmer ? The monkey dance guy ? The one that is pushing the Bill Gates Microsoft from first enterprise in computer industry to last place in new domain like mobility ?
This is one of the most unsuccessful CEO and hated by his own people. Even the shareholders are trying to kick him...

I stopped reading there, I don't want to be as successful as him ...

I am a junior psychology major at Texas A&M University. I mention this bexause the facts I've learned contradict this guys entire argument. Colvin claims that skills and "talent" cannot transfer from one generation to the next because it would take thousands of years to see a change in human ability. Not true. How is it that (in one generations time) we can pass on predispositions to drug addiction, STD's, psychological disorders, obesity tendencies, and heart issues? However, according to Colvin we could not pass on language ability, athleticism, musical ability, or thing of the sort? Yea...that doesn't make sense.

"Deliberate Practice" is only good for improving technical skills like playing piano or running a marathon faster. As examples of how performance levels have risen because of better training, Colvin cites how today's high school marathoner can run 20 minutes faster than a gold medalist from 1908 and how a typical student is doing more complex math than some of the most learned men in the 13th century.

This is well and good. But you can't make the same comparisons when it comes to creating art. Are modern symphonies really superior to Beethoven's? Is David Mamet a much better playwright than Shakespeare? Is today's average art student many times more brilliant than Michelangelo? Does Thomas Pynchon blow away Fyodor Doestovesky? You see? The best you could say is that modern artists are different, NOT better than ones from earlier eras. And most will tell you that the PAST geniuses (Beethoven, Shakespeare, etc) are infinitely better than anyone working today. Too bad Colvin didn't write about this!

When it comes to intangibles like Inspiration, Passion, Imagination there is no absolute clear-cut formula to improvement. So sorry to disappoint, but most likely you're not gonna go out and write a novel better than Doestovesky after reading this "how-to" book.

This book is substantially a suspicious rehash of a major peer reviewed article. Colvin and Gladwell Outliers: The Story of Success are chasing the same topic, incredibly within the same few months and referencing the same research. Albeit with different titles and stories. Colvin does a good job giving credit to that author. The problems begin when Colvin starts to take parts of the research and explode the number of pages dedicated to one point -deliberate practice. And while that point, deliberate practice is important, it is one of several ingredients in the making of an expert. In the paper "Making of an expert" by K. Anders Ericsson and others, Harvard Business Review, July 2007 they detail three well accepted conditions:

1. Delibrate Practice - the author sites verbatim with strong emphasizes
2. World class coaching - Important but not emphasized well
3. Enthusiastic family support - Very important and not emphasized well

And obviously the expert-to-be needs to be motivated. What is disturbing is Covin doesn't give much credit (wrongly) in terms of pages, to the support environment namely families and coaches. Ok, there are passing paragraphs but no where near the emphasis it should be according to the original researchers. Intuitively, as well as deep in all parents hearts, they know those new champions/experts had to have great parents. Think of Tiger Woods (Golf), the Mannings (NFL) and Obama to name a few. The deliberate practice condition also encompasses the 10,000 hours requirement in becoming an expert whether that is business, music or sports to name a few endeavors. This translates into roughly what I call the 4/6/10 phenomena - 4 hours a day, 6 days a week for 10 years. Taking a few weeks off a year helps recovery so its about 1000 hours per year.
Of the three conditions, enthusiastic family support seems to be the catalyst for the other two. That article is well written and easy to read. You can go to the HBR site and pick it up for $7. There are excellent peer reviewed references in that article worth reading. One of the key references is available at this site The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. It may be a little more academic but if you already have read "The making of an expert" and want more, than this is it.

Maybe talent is overrated -- but this book definitely overrates practice, and instills a profound sense of guilt into anyone who has ever had to take a step back from a goal and divert ones energy and resources elsewhere. Everybody would agree that there are many cases when abandoning something that has been an important part of your life, or even its focus, is the right thing to do. There have been recent studies that link chronic depression to an inability to abandon an overly ambitious goal, and suggest that success requires choosing the right objective. Yet this book pushes you to stick with whatever has been your chosen path and makes you feel guilty for not trying harder. Perhaps sometimes we all need a little "kick" to get back to work and try again. However, the approach presented here strikes as a dangerous and isulting generalization.

This book starts out fine and backs up some of the thesis with so so arguments. However as it progressed the arguments got less convincing. Toward the end it just gets plain scary in my opinion. I'm not going to give out details in case you want to read the book for yourself. I will say that we might all think about what "world class" means. In the go go go world of today we seem to think that to win is the ultimate goal, but you know 99% of the fun is playing the game, and HOW you play does matter.

Dear Geoff Colvin, try to use deliberate practice to sing like Enrico Caruso and I'll be laughing at your futile efforts. You got confused and try to confuse a reader.

No practice would produce a great result if you don't have a talent, but talent does need work and conditions to flourish.

Another example - Robertino Loretti - excellent voice, but o-ops, he lost it once he grew up, let's recommend him to use deliberate practice to get that voice back. :)

Several years ago I saw a quote from a highly respected business leader to the effect that shelves of management books come out every year, and most are not worth reading. This one isn't either.

Colvin tells us that in field after field, people with lots of experience were no better at their jobs than those with very little. Hard to believe, and it isn't true. Yes, more experienced doctors reliably score lower on tests of medical knowledge than less experienced doctors just out of training and medical school. However, there are also journals full of evidence that "practice makes perfect" - those with years of experience at eg. surgery have better outcomes. Also, my own experience definitely proved that new computer programmers are very useful, at first.

As for talent, Colvin admits that not all researchers believe that specifically targeted innate abilities don't exist. Need more evidence - ask yourself why black athletes consistently outperform most whites in running, basketball, and football. The answer - they're bodies are different, with a difference in foot structure and possibly other areas also.

Colvin goes in so many directions that it sometimes is difficult to keep track. Focusing on business success, presumably his area of greatest interest as a Fortune editor, allows explaining some of the research difficulties of explaining business success w/o reference to talent.

1)Critical requirements vary situationally. New products eventually become commodities. The managerial skills necessary for success in these two life-cycle phases differ greatly.

2)Agreement on what "good business performance" consists of is often lacking. For example, is it growth in market share, short-term profitability, peer ratings, social responsibility, situational depending on the economic cycle, or worker ratings? All have been used, creating lots of confusion.

Eventually Colvin cites evidence that the amount of musical practice is the best predictor of musical skill. Duh! (Previously it was neophytes are better than those experienced. At still another point he cites Jack Welch's practice at managing as key to his success at G.E. - except he didn't have any, just started out managing with his chemical engineering degree and was successful from the start.) But why is it that after years and years of hard (and embarrassing) practice I still can't catch very well? Because I lack talent.

Bottom Line: "Talent is Overrated" is one of the majority of business books that aren't worth reading. Both Colvin and Malcomb Gladwell should stop wasting trees.

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody ElseAnother book of degradation...unless you disregard obligations such as your family. By the time you finish this book you will be ready for suicide. Hard work is good but commitment on a life time scale is ridiculous. Variety truly is the spice of life. Trial and error is the greatest impetus for this life. The type of stress Colvin demands from our lives gives the vast majority of us no chance. It's easy to see why Denmark is the least stressed country in the world and the USA is the Prozac capitol. This book is a tale of torture to your children. No wonder the most talented artists commit suicide. Never did they stop to smell the roses, children can be pressed so hard through practice, they cannot interact with anyone. Talent is a gift maybe that is why on the very day of Galileo's death Copernicus was born. Do not believe this book....please.