Is talent overrated? – Page 2 of 2 – StartupSmart

 

It is designed specifically to improve performance

The exercise often needs to be designed by a teacher or mentor that understands what your weaknesses are and what needs to be done to improve.

 

The activities need to be designed to stretch you and push you outside your comfort zone. Tiger Woods will drop a golf ball into a sand bunker, step on it, and then play the stroke. He will do that thousands of times until he is exhausted.

 

Tiger may only play that stroke a handful of times through his career, but when he comes to a tournament, he is well rehearsed in how to execute it.

 

It can be repeated a lot

Repetition counts. Repetition alone is not good enough, but when focusing on a particular skill-set with a clear outcome, there needs to be high repetition.

 

In business, this can be achieved through role-play and rehearsal. When preparing for a high stakes show in Madison Square Garden on New Years Eve, Chris Rock performed 18 dress rehearsal evenings in small clubs across America, perfecting his material with every laugh.

 

At the height of his career he is still forcing that repetition and immediate feedback before he performs on the main stage.

 

Feedback on results is continually available

In business, feedback is everywhere and often it comes in the form of failure; a proposal that didn’t get through, a presentation that didn’t hit, a deal which fell over.

 

Rather than looking at these experiences as failures, if we can examine what happened and take from it an understanding of what to do differently next time, there is our feedback. This is best done with a mentor or manager.

 

It is highly mentally demanding

 

Several studies have shown that four or five hours a day seems to be the most we can engage in deliberate practice. This is due to the mental exhaustion that accompanies it.

 

Even professional athletes that may be hitting more tennis balls in a day than most people do in a year report that at the end of the day it is the mental exhaustion, not the physical exhaustion, that is most obvious.

 

It isn’t fun

Often, people can have a romantic notion of what it is to be an ‘entrepreneur’. These notions don’t usually make it past year one.

 

Doing what we’re good at is enjoyable. However, when you take what you are good at, hone in on your weaknesses and repeat a deliberately designed exercise to the point of mental exhaustion, often it is not fun.

 

This is, of course, a good thing. If it were easy – everyone would be doing it.

 

The research highlights that when looking at business moguls such as Branson, Gates or Trump, we no longer have an excuse to write them off as being “on another level” or “unbelievably talented.”

 

Admittedly these people may be on another level today but the studies show that they weren’t born there. It was through hours, years and decades of deliberate practice that they were able to attain a level of performance somewhat resembling greatness.

 

As Colvin concludes, “great performance is not reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and everyone.”