Talent Is Overrated - What really separates world-class performers from everybody else

Geoff Colvin

Nicholas Brealey Publishing 2008

Rs.795 and pages 228

You could dismiss this book as the ranting of a cynic. And mind you, cynics come with a lot of research behind them: how else would they know all the prices (let’s not mention values). The theme of the book though, is disturbingly close to the work of Malcolm Gladwell: Outliers, which also came out in 2008.

The author, for instance says that if you had thought Mozart had talent, forget it! From a very early age Mozart received instructions from his father (Leopold) a teacher, composer, performer and domineering parent. And yet Mozart’s first masterpiece (Piano Concerto number 9) was composed when he was 21 – after 18 years of extremely hard, expert training. Tiger Woods had Earl Woods, his father, a ‘teacher of young men, with a lifelong passion for sports’. Asked to explain Tiger’s phenomenal success, father and son had the same answer: hard work.

Jack Welch and Bill Gates showed no signs of world-class abilities in their younger years. And Warren Buffett showed world-class performance after having worked diligently in the field for over 20 years. Several more such cases are brought out to show that outstanding performance has little to do with inborn talent and much more with hard, focused, disciplined work.  Colvin calls it ‘Deliberate Practice’. According to him, while developing the specific abilities of the particular domain, Deliberate Practice also effects changes in the person’s brain and body. There is a brief discussion on ‘myelin’, a substance that builds around the nerve fibres and neurons: great performance happens when ‘Myelination’ occurs ‘millions of times’. No more on ‘Myelination’ because research on the subject is still in its early stages.

Then he anticipates some questions: Can Deliberate Practice fully explain high achievement, and his answer is: No, real life is too complicated for that. Candidness is not acceptable when explanations are expected.

Another anticipated question: Where does the passion come from? This is answered with another question: Do people feel driven or can they be induced into it? The general belief and largely supported by research, he says, is that is intrinsic. So ultimately there is an internal element which goes beyond all research, and reasoning, and cynical logic.  Later, the author says that possibly these kids are somehow born with a compulsion to work in a particular domain. Why? Ah, that’s the mystery.

So much for talent at the individual level. In organisations, the need for churning out innovations increases as products, services and business models have shorter lives. The old beliefs (that creative ideas come only in Archimedean flashes; and creativity can be inhibited by too much knowledge), are patently wrong.  The greatest innovators in a wide range of fields – business, science, painting, music etc – have spent decades in intensive preparation before making any kind of creative breakthrough.  They were not burdened by knowledge but nourished by it.

Nourishment, or nurturing, is also what the homes of outstanding performers can teach us. The parents, willing to do anything to help the children, believed in and modelled a strong work ethic – of excellence, hard work, and to spend one’s time constructively. In an organisation this would be analogous to choosing developmental assignments that continually stretch an employee’s abilities. Employees will continue doing what they feel comfortable with – employers, like parents and coaches, have to keep pushing them to develop, and this process requires sacrifices on their part as well – including periods of low productivity from an employee while he or she is learning new skills.

While on the subject of performance in organisations an interesting question is posed by Colvin: Should we create business prodigies? The first aspect of this question is whether it is possible. Colvin says it is. Then the more important aspect: Is it desirable? Instinctively our answer is no for various reasons. He warns however that the emerging economies may not have such qualms …

Finally Colvin admits that we have reached the point where we are left without guidance from scientists and must look into the only place we have left: within ourselves. Having failed to effectively prove that there is no such thing as inborn talent and that it is all ‘Deliberate Practice’ he tries a placebo: great performance is not reserved for a preordained few – it is available to you and everyone; you can apply Deliberate Practice in your own life and work – you will be better off than if you had not.

One significant point in the book however, is his statement in the very beginning that if we believe that ‘natural talent’ is a precondition for success, we will put people (including ourselves) off, never allowing them (or us) to pursue an activity. By far the only significant point.