Talent Is Overrated What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
I recently read this book and I was very fascinated by it. The book focuses on world class performers and asks the question: “What makes the best in the world the best at what they do"?
Most of us believe achieving the highest levels of performance is a mix of natural talent and hard work. But this belief is wrong. Natural talent when combined with hard work will make you better than the average, but this combination will not put you at the top of your profession.
A good example is a top amateur athlete who faithfully practices for many years with blood, sweat and tears and may be the very best on their team or in their league; however they will never reach the highest peaks of their chosen sport or go on to win an Olympic Gold Medal, regardless of the amount of hard work, practice or time they put in.
On the other hand, we have all witnessed the superstars who rocket to the very top in a very short time, and play as if they were born with some sort of super -human mutant ability. They break every record and win every championship. These are the super elite, those who set the bar high for their fellow competitors. How these superstars accomplish this is what the book examines. Researchers have concluded that an individual’s natural gifts do not a superstar make.
Could it be the willingness to work harder than everybody else? No, it’s not that! Maybe it is just being more mentally tough (an intensified fortitude) than the average competitor? Nope. It’s not that either. Researchers have converged on an answer. It's something they call deliberate practice.
What is deliberate practice?
Deliberate practice is a specific and unique kind of activity, and it’s neither work nor play.
Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance.
The key word is "designed." The essence of deliberate practice is to continually stretch an individual just beyond his or her current abilities. An example is Tiger Woods , who intensely applies this principle (and which is no secret among pro golfers). Tiger has been seen to drop golf balls into a sand trap, step on them, and then practice shots from that near impossible lie. Tiger Woods may face that buried lie in the sand only two or three times in a season, and if those were his only opportunities to work on that shot, he'd blow it just as you and I would.
Deliberate practice must be repeated a lot.
High repetition is the most important difference between deliberate practice of a task and performing the task for real. Two points distinguish deliberate practice from what most of us actually do. One is the choice of a demanding activity just beyond our current abilities. The other is the amount of repetition.
Feedback on results needs to be continuously available.
You may think that your rehearsal of a job interview was flawless, but your opinion isn't what counts. Can you really trust your own judgment? In many important situations, a teacher, coach, or mentor is vital for providing crucial feedback.
Its highly demanding mentally.
Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it "deliberate.” Continually seeking those elements of performance that are unsatisfactory and then trying one's hardest to make them better.
Its hard.
Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands. Instead of doing what we're good at, we need to seek out what we're not good at. The reality that deliberate practice is hard can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won't do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more from the crowd.
Set goals before you start
Self-regulation begins with setting goals. Not big, life-directing goals, but more immediate goals (for example, what you're going to be doing today). From the research:
Poor performers don't set goals; they just slog through their work.
Mediocre performers set goals that are very general and are often focused on simply achieving a good outcome (win the sale; get the new project proposal done.)
Best performers set goals that are not about the outcome, but rather about the process of reaching the outcome.
The best performers are focused on how they could get better at some specific element of their work. With a goal set, the next step is planning how to reach it. Again, the best performers make the most specific, technique-oriented tasks. They're thinking exactly of how to get where they're going. Their plan for achieving it on that day may be to listen for certain key words the customer might use, or to ask specific questions to bring out the customer's crucial issues.
Make self-observations
The most important self-regulatory skill that top performers in every field use during their work is self-observation. The best performers observe themselves closely. They are able to monitor what is happening in their own minds. Researchers call this meta-cognition—knowledge about your own knowledge; thinking about your own thinking. Top performers do this much more than others do as part of their routine. Meta-cognition is important because situations change as they play out. It plays a valuable part in helping top performers adapt to changing conditions. When a client raises a completely unexpected problem in a negotiation, an excellent businessperson can pause mentally and observe his own mental processes as if from outside, and ask:
Have I fully understood what's really behind the objection?
Am I angry?
Am I being hijacked by my emotions?
Do I need a different strategy here?
What should it be?
Evaluate yourself
Practice activities are worthless without useful feedback about the results. These must be self-evaluations; since the practice activities took place in our own minds, only we can know fully what we were attempting or judge how it turned out.
Excellent performers judge themselves differently than most people do. They're specific, just as they are when they set goals and strategies.
Average performers are content to tell themselves that they did great, or poorly, or that they “tried their best”.
In summary, this is an excellent read. This book has changed the way I view top performers and how their skill sets are achieved. The book has also made me ask myself some very tough questions, such as:
Do I push myself outside of my comfort zone on regularly?
Am I good at setting goals and achieving them consistently?
Is my ego ready for an outside perspective and assessment of my skills and coaching?
Do I know my weak points as well as my strengths?
Am I willing to do the work that others won’t to raise the bar?
Am I just like everybody else who came along and tried their best? (I hope not!)
Reading Roosh’s books, following his adventures around the globe has truly inspired me to step my game, get out my comfort zones, make the effort to be a better Man all-round, and most important, I will never travel to Denmark to pick up chicks.
I recently read this book and I was very fascinated by it. The book focuses on world class performers and asks the question: “What makes the best in the world the best at what they do"?
Most of us believe achieving the highest levels of performance is a mix of natural talent and hard work. But this belief is wrong. Natural talent when combined with hard work will make you better than the average, but this combination will not put you at the top of your profession.
A good example is a top amateur athlete who faithfully practices for many years with blood, sweat and tears and may be the very best on their team or in their league; however they will never reach the highest peaks of their chosen sport or go on to win an Olympic Gold Medal, regardless of the amount of hard work, practice or time they put in.
On the other hand, we have all witnessed the superstars who rocket to the very top in a very short time, and play as if they were born with some sort of super -human mutant ability. They break every record and win every championship. These are the super elite, those who set the bar high for their fellow competitors. How these superstars accomplish this is what the book examines. Researchers have concluded that an individual’s natural gifts do not a superstar make.
Could it be the willingness to work harder than everybody else? No, it’s not that! Maybe it is just being more mentally tough (an intensified fortitude) than the average competitor? Nope. It’s not that either. Researchers have converged on an answer. It's something they call deliberate practice.
What is deliberate practice?
Deliberate practice is a specific and unique kind of activity, and it’s neither work nor play.
Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance.
The key word is "designed." The essence of deliberate practice is to continually stretch an individual just beyond his or her current abilities. An example is Tiger Woods , who intensely applies this principle (and which is no secret among pro golfers). Tiger has been seen to drop golf balls into a sand trap, step on them, and then practice shots from that near impossible lie. Tiger Woods may face that buried lie in the sand only two or three times in a season, and if those were his only opportunities to work on that shot, he'd blow it just as you and I would.
Deliberate practice must be repeated a lot.
High repetition is the most important difference between deliberate practice of a task and performing the task for real. Two points distinguish deliberate practice from what most of us actually do. One is the choice of a demanding activity just beyond our current abilities. The other is the amount of repetition.
Feedback on results needs to be continuously available.
You may think that your rehearsal of a job interview was flawless, but your opinion isn't what counts. Can you really trust your own judgment? In many important situations, a teacher, coach, or mentor is vital for providing crucial feedback.
Its highly demanding mentally.
Deliberate practice is above all an effort of focus and concentration. That is what makes it "deliberate.” Continually seeking those elements of performance that are unsatisfactory and then trying one's hardest to make them better.
Its hard.
Doing things we know how to do well is enjoyable, and that's exactly the opposite of what deliberate practice demands. Instead of doing what we're good at, we need to seek out what we're not good at. The reality that deliberate practice is hard can even be seen as good news. It means that most people won't do it. So your willingness to do it will distinguish you all the more from the crowd.
Set goals before you start
Self-regulation begins with setting goals. Not big, life-directing goals, but more immediate goals (for example, what you're going to be doing today). From the research:
Poor performers don't set goals; they just slog through their work.
Mediocre performers set goals that are very general and are often focused on simply achieving a good outcome (win the sale; get the new project proposal done.)
Best performers set goals that are not about the outcome, but rather about the process of reaching the outcome.
The best performers are focused on how they could get better at some specific element of their work. With a goal set, the next step is planning how to reach it. Again, the best performers make the most specific, technique-oriented tasks. They're thinking exactly of how to get where they're going. Their plan for achieving it on that day may be to listen for certain key words the customer might use, or to ask specific questions to bring out the customer's crucial issues.
Make self-observations
The most important self-regulatory skill that top performers in every field use during their work is self-observation. The best performers observe themselves closely. They are able to monitor what is happening in their own minds. Researchers call this meta-cognition—knowledge about your own knowledge; thinking about your own thinking. Top performers do this much more than others do as part of their routine. Meta-cognition is important because situations change as they play out. It plays a valuable part in helping top performers adapt to changing conditions. When a client raises a completely unexpected problem in a negotiation, an excellent businessperson can pause mentally and observe his own mental processes as if from outside, and ask:
Have I fully understood what's really behind the objection?
Am I angry?
Am I being hijacked by my emotions?
Do I need a different strategy here?
What should it be?
Evaluate yourself
Practice activities are worthless without useful feedback about the results. These must be self-evaluations; since the practice activities took place in our own minds, only we can know fully what we were attempting or judge how it turned out.
Excellent performers judge themselves differently than most people do. They're specific, just as they are when they set goals and strategies.
Average performers are content to tell themselves that they did great, or poorly, or that they “tried their best”.
In summary, this is an excellent read. This book has changed the way I view top performers and how their skill sets are achieved. The book has also made me ask myself some very tough questions, such as:
Do I push myself outside of my comfort zone on regularly?
Am I good at setting goals and achieving them consistently?
Is my ego ready for an outside perspective and assessment of my skills and coaching?
Do I know my weak points as well as my strengths?
Am I willing to do the work that others won’t to raise the bar?
Am I just like everybody else who came along and tried their best? (I hope not!)
Reading Roosh’s books, following his adventures around the globe has truly inspired me to step my game, get out my comfort zones, make the effort to be a better Man all-round, and most important, I will never travel to Denmark to pick up chicks.
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