Talent is Overrated

I got Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else after watching Geoff Colvin on Charlie Rose.I Colvin researched the question of what makes someone a top performer in her field and shares the results.

He did discover that talent is a small factor. What really matters is deliberate practice and lots of it. By putting 10,000 hours of deliberate practice into an endeavor one should excel. That's a lot of time and often not fun, but that's what it takes. So you don't have to give up if you weren't born a prodigy. There's still hope. Also, while it's best to start young, it's not essential.

The book reads fast and includes lots of apt anecdotes.