What Makes People Great?

What makes people great, is it talent or effort? I've seen athletes who were carefree and seemed to get by with minimal training and I've seen athletes that appeared to need every minute of training. In Talent is Overrated, Geoffrey Colvin argues that it is neither.

• It's not IQ or Memory

Colvin says there are international chess masters who possess below average IQ. It's also not the result of an innately strong memory. Individuals with average IQs, who started out recalling 7-8 digits spoken aloud, have been taught to recall over 100 digits. In the realm of business, IQ is a decent predictor of performance on unfamiliar tasks but once a person has been at a job for a few years, IQ predicts little to nothing about performance.

• It's not Experience

Experienced Physicians were no better than Physicians with only a few years of experience at diagnosing problems. If fact, some of the older Physicians were worse. Just because someone has been working at the same company for decades does not mean they are any more an expert. One could simply find a comfortable routine and never challenge themselves or advance their skills. This is scary because the half life of knowledge is shrinking. Depending on the field, what we know today will be obsolete in 4-7 years.

• It's not Innate Ability

Mozart and Tiger Woods are poster children for innate ability. However, when one looks closer they both had fathers that went to painstaking lengths to teach them their crafts from a very young age.

The Answer is: Deliberate Practice
It's about taking specific steps to achieve a goal. It's not about doing everything well, but doing a few things really well. That's why IQ doesn't really matter. You're only focusing on a few small things. Jerry Rice, the Hall of Fame receiver, wasn't the best athlete, but he focused on a few keys areas to succeed. He didn't just play more football or watch more film, he studied the film using a specific protocol to better understand defenses. He also did specific uphill wind sprints to improve his explosive acceleration.

At the Music Academy of West Berlin. The good, better, and best violinists all practiced the same amount of total hours, but the best violinist committed more time to individual practice. It was the least popular form of practice, but it allowed them to focus on specific areas for improvement.

In a crazy story that could only happen in the 1960s, Laszlo Polgar advertised for a wife to help him prove that geniuses are made not born. He had 3 daughters and he taught them all to become internationally ranked chess champions. His daughter Judith reached the status of top female and top 10 overall.

Develop a Plan

Steve Martin regularly recorded his stand up routines and later listened to specific aspects of the shows to make adjustments. It's not a matter of just wanting something and trying really hard. It starts with having a belief/goal, that is broken down into specific steps, and adjusted through feedback. Panasonic developed a 500 year plan that has helped them over the years prepare for the future. Currently they are working with Tesla on a $5 billion factory to make next generation car batteries. On a personal note, I've added weekly feedback sessions with my wife to assist in writing my weekly plan. It's helping me stay on track, achieve my goals, and reduce stress. My next step is to develop a 90 day and 5 year plan.

Supportive Environment

Interestingly, Colvin noted that the great Einstein, Gardner, & Stravinsky all came from smaller cities. He hypothesized that being a big fish in a small pond helps develop confidence and future success. Malcolm Gladwell touches on this subject in David & Goliath. He found that some students become demoralized and lose passion when they go to a prestigious universities and compete in a bigger pond. I discussing this topic with a friend who attended MIT and he felt that social support plays a huge role in who succeeds and who quits. It makes me think that more people could be great if we just encouraged each other a little more and focused our feedback on specific behaviors rather than personal traits. 

Passion

Colvin concludes that greatest comes from Passion. However, in contrast to popular belief, passion is not fully formed at birth or sudden bestowed, it develops over time. It comes from the fulfillment of being good at something, being told your doing well, making progress, or receiving rewards. The rewards can be extrinsic at first, such as money or a trophy, but to maintain the passion one needs continuous intrinsic motivators.

My Take Aways
Praise someone/yourself today and see what passion is ignited. Even the most minute progress could eventually evolve into greatness. Secondly, ask yourself what do you want and what do you believe? If you don't believe something is possible, passion is not going to develop. In the end, "We may not become Mozart or Jack Welch, but we could become better." - Geoffrey Colvin