When we watch a truly great athlete, musician, actor, or even someone supremely successful with women, we have a tendency to think their skill level must come from one of two ways. Either they’ve worked incredibly hard or they were simply born with this extraordinary amount of talent.
However, in "Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else" by Geoff Colvin, we find that the answer is neither.
Hard work alone is not sufficient to achieve true mastery. All of us work hard every day at our jobs. We devote hundreds of thousands of hours to employment over the course of our lives. But very, very few of us can claim to be truly exceptional performers at our given vocation.
And natural born talent isn’t the answer either. It can, admittedly, be comforting to look at basketball star Kobe Bryant and say, “Well, he was born to play that way,” because the natural talent angle excuses our own mediocrity at basketball or whatever the activity is. We can justify our own midlevel results with the argument that we just weren’t talented enough. Many people feel that the ability to sing or play a musical instrument is a natural talent. But researchers in England looked at school children who performed music at a variety of levels. The assumption was that the most skilled musicians would display some different characteristic, some trait, that separated them from the pack. “The results were clear,” Colvin writes. “The telltale signs of precocious musical ability in the top-performing groups – the evidence of talent that we all know exists – simply weren’t there. On the contrary, judged by early signs of special talent, the groups were highly similar.”
So what made the difference between the rockers and the bumblers? Deliberate practice.
In "Talent is Overrated", Colvin argues that deliberate, methodical, and sustained practice is the way to achieve true mastery, not aimless hard work (no matter how well-intentioned) or relying on natural talent.
“Deliberate practice is also not what most of us do when we think we’re practicing golf or the oboe or any of our other interests,” Colvin writes. “Deliberate practice is hard. It hurts. But it works. More of it equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.”
Deliberate practice is defined by identifying exactly what are the skills an activity requires, breaking them down into the smallest components and then rigorously concentrating on these components through a combination of repetition and evaluation. Colvin illustrates this point by examining Ben Franklin’s exhaustive regimen for becoming a better writer. “He did not try to become a better essay writer by sitting down and writing essays,” Colvin writes. “Instead, like a top-ranked athlete or musician, he worked over and over on those specific aspects that needed improvement.”
So how can you apply these concepts to improving your social life? When you go out tonight, do not try to take a woman to bed or try to meet your soulmate. Do not worry about the big picture of your goals. Instead, break that goal down into microscopically small increments. Then, work on those increments over and over and over again.
Just how microscopically should you focus? Here’s an good analogy:
When we think of musicians in the studio, we imagine them playing segments of a song, maybe a few bars at a time. But we think in terms of complete riffs, maybe a guitar solo, or at least 5 seconds of music. However, in a recently published book, British rock journalist Mick Wall writes that megaproducer Mutt Lange “insisted guitarists strike one string at a time, over and over again in order for him to build up the sound of the chords himself on computer.” Imagine that. Nothing is simpler than an open G chord. Yet, professional musicians didn’t even play that one chord. They broke it down even further.
So instead of just looking at large topics like opening or comfort, instead, focus on how you hold your shoulders as you approach the group. Ruthlessly evaluate your performance and master that micro-detail before moving on to another technique. Instead of worrying about your kino skills or how smooth a cold read might be, focus on the warmth and dryness of your hands or the angle of your head as you perform a palm reading.
No one says this will be easy. But in Talent is Overrated, Geoff Colvin explains how normal people can mimic the habits of the truly great. In chapters such as “Applying the Principles in Our Lives” and “Applying the Principles in Our Organizations,” Colvin shows you how to use these practices, regardless of whether you’re trying to learn an instrument, to become a better accountant, or take your social skills to the next level. And certainly this intense focus — even if it is only for a limited time to refine your skills — will tremendously improve your interactions with women and friends.
(Source:
https://www.neilstrauss.com/the-game/ta ... nt-matter/)
I checked PDF with this book and i think i can recommend it to everyone who think that "talent" makes difference. You will be supprised how wrong you were in your life and how big silly excuse are words "he is talented".
