More on Success

'Talent is Overrated' is the name, and Geoff Colvin is the author of another book on the subject of success, successful people, and what makes them that way. It is similar to 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell, and often draws on the same research. But, the focus is different: Where 'Outliers' looks at the randomness of success and the barriers that stand in the way of many, Colvin is more interested in uncovering the enablers of success, and giving that information to anyone willing to read. His focus is decidedly business oriented. (And, to a large degree, both writers define success more 'makes a lot of money' than 'stands out in their field'.)

Colvin uncovers the same basic requirement of success: Roughly ten years (similar to Gladwell's 10,000 hours) of 'Deliberate Practice'. Deliberate practice is not simply doing the tasks, it is focused, it gives feedback, and it is hard. Jerry Rice is invoked as someone who drove himself to intense levels of deliberate practice. Tiger Woods has his father to thank for showing him, as do the Polgar sisters (chess champions by 20). These sorts of examples are well known.

But Colvin is more interested in the sorts of occupations that more of us undertake. Business, rather than athletics or art is where more of us find ourselves. And what makes the business greats? By looking at the most successful corporations, and those who have led them, Colvin makes the argument that it is the same thing: Deliberate Practice at one's chosen profession.

It seems clear that to do well, one must be driven to confront this unpleasant practice, and pursue it for hours on end. We call people who will do so passionate, but, for most of us, the mystery is the source of the passion. One could reasonably postulate that passion is talent: The passionate may test no better on tests of intelligence of athletic skill early, but that's because we are testing the wrong component. If only we could measure passion in a child.

By far the most interesting portion of the book is when Colvin looks into this issue of passion and attempts to discern whence it arises. The results of the research pretty well refute my postulate of passion as talent. Although the successful, by the time we would call them that, have enormous amounts of intrinsic drive or passion to focus on their work for its own sake, they don't start out that way. Future musicians protest at their parent's compelling them to practice, future athletes shirk the extra practice sessions, future business leaders skip assignments and classes. Passion is not innate.

So, there is something extrinsic, or outside the individual, that contributes to the passion. Research has begun to uncover this, too: “Extrinsic motivators that reinforce intrinsic motivation” (p. 192) and “constructive, nonthreatening, and work-focused rather than person-focused” (ibid). This is in contrast to extrinsic motivation that is controlling, which in many studies has been shown to be detrimental to creativity and performance in general.

Recognize a child in a way that confirms competence, and they are more likely to seek out more. More work, more extrinsic recognition, bulding more intrinsic confidence, more practice, more recognition of competence, and the intrinsic motivation becomes stronger. Eventually, the external reminders are unnecessary, and the future Michael Jordan, knowing he gets better with practice, that he is better than most, and confident that he can improve as much as he is willing to practice is in the gym before anyone else to improve and refine his skills.

Colvin's and Gladwell's books open up worlds of possibilities, both for us individually, and for us as parents. What would we like to do well? Is the necessary time (10,000 hours) available? Can we receive the necessary coaching and training early on, and get the immediate constructive, focused feedback that will enable us to develop an internal drive? As we expose our children to activities, can we provide them with the positive external motivators that will build the passion in them, through feelings of competence? And, for them, what will be the most beneficial skills that we should help them learn to develop? We spend large amounts of time and money enabling this in sports and art, but should we consider future business oriented activities: Pursuit of math, economics, business strategy?

The only question Colvin doesn't address is what Deliberate Practice looks like for a specific profession. He shows early on in the book that many people, after entering their chosen career, actually get worse, or at least no better, both because the day-to-day demands of the job take precedence and are not conducive to professional improvement and the individual has no notion of practicing on a regular basis to get better. There is an implicit challenge in his closing pages: Individually to design our practice to improve, and to businesses to make the time and resources available to allow it. The motivation? Those businesses that have made it a priority (he cites GE and Google) routinely out innovate and outgrow their competition.

Good books, both. They uncover the fallacy of 'talent' as an explanation, reveal the difficulties predicting success, and point to ways we can use to our advantage. I must close here, as I have to go and develop a Deliberate Practice plan for my chosen profession.