Talent Is Overrated

Zusatztext Provocative. Time A profoundly important book. Dan Pink! author of A Whole New Mind What an exciting book! Ram Charan! coauthor of Execution I rejoice! What Geoff says comports totally with my own experiences in sports! law! and business. Herb Kelleher! founder! Southwest Airlines Informationen zum Autor Geoff Colvin Klappentext "Excellent."-The Wall Street Journal Since its publication ten years ago, businesspeople, investors, doctors, parents, students, athletes, and musicians at every level have adopted the maxims of Talent Is Overrated to get better at what they're passionate about. Now this classic has been updated and revised with new research and takeaways to help anyone achieve even greater performance. Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answer-but we're almost always wrong. That's important, because if we're wrong on this crucial question, then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about. Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn't specific, innate talent, nor is it plain old hard work. It's a very specific type of work that anyone can do-but most people don't. What's more, the principles of great performance apply to virtually any activity that matters to you. Readers worldwide have been inspired by this book's liberating message: You don't need a one-in-a-million natural gift. Better performance, and maybe even world-class performance, is closer than you think. Zusammenfassung Excellent. The Wall Street Journal Since its publication ten years ago! businesspeople! investors! doctors! parents! students! athletes! and musicians at every level have adopted the maxims of Talent Is Overrated to get better at what they're passionate about. Now this classic has been updated and revised with new research and takeaways to help anyone achieve even greater performance. Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answerbut we're almost always wrong. That's important! because if we're wrong on this crucial question! then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about. Happily! the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research! bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn't specific! innate talent! nor is it plain old hard work. It's a very specific type of work that anyone can dobut most people don't. What's more! the principles of great performance apply to virtually any activity that matters to you. Readers worldwide have been inspired by this book's liberating message: You don't need a one-in-a-million natural gift. Better performance! and maybe even world-class performance! is closer than you think. ...

ldquo;Provocative.” —*Time

• “A profoundly important book.” —Dan Pink, author of *A Whole New Mind
• “What an exciting book!” —Ram Charan, coauthor of *Execution
• “I rejoice! What Geoff says comports totally with my own experiences in sports, law, and business.” —Herb Kelleher, founder, Southwest Airlines

Auteur

Geoff Colvin

Texte du rabat

"Excellent."-The Wall Street Journal

Since its publication ten years ago, businesspeople, investors, doctors, parents, students, athletes, and musicians at every level have adopted the maxims of Talent Is Overrated to get better at what they're passionate about. Now this classic has been updated and revised with new research and takeaways to help anyone achieve even greater performance.

Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answer-but we're almost always wrong. That's important, because if we're wrong on this crucial question, then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about.
Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn't specific, innate talent, nor is it plain old hard work. It's a very specific type of work that anyone can do-but most people don't.
What's more, the principles of great performance apply to virtually any activity that matters to you. Readers worldwide have been inspired by this book's liberating message: You don't need a one-in-a-million natural gift. Better performance, and maybe even world-class performance, is closer than you think.

Résumé
“Excellent.”—The Wall Street Journal

Since its publication ten years ago, businesspeople, investors, doctors, parents, students, athletes, and musicians at every level have adopted the maxims of Talent Is Overrated to get better at what they’re passionate about. Now this classic has been updated and revised with new research and takeaways to help anyone achieve even greater performance.
 
Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answer—but we’re almost always wrong. That’s important, because if we’re wrong on this crucial question, then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about.
Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn’t specific, innate talent, nor is it plain old hard work. It’s a very specific type of work that anyone can do—but most people don’t.
What’s more, the principles of great performance apply to virtually any activity that matters to you. Readers worldwide have been inspired by this book’s liberating message: You don’t need a one-in-a-million natural gift. Better performance, and maybe even world-class performance, is closer than you think.

Échantillon de lecture
Chapter One

The Mystery

Great performance is more valuable than ever- but where does it really come from?

It is mid-1978, and we are inside the giant Procter & Gamble head- quarters in Cincinnati, looking into a cubicle shared by a pair of twenty-two-year-old men, fresh out of college. Their assignment is to help sell Duncan Hines brownie mix, but they spend a lot of their time just rewriting memos according to strict company rules. They are clearly smart: One has just graduated from Harvard, the other from Dartmouth. But that doesn't distinguish them from a slew of other new hires at P&G. What does distinguish them from many of the young go-getters the company takes on each year is that neither man is particularly filled with ambition. Neither has any kind of career plan or any specific career goals. Every afternoon they play waste-bin basketball with wadded-up memos. One of them later recalls, "We were voted the two guys probably least likely to succeed."

These two young men are of interest to us now for only one reason: They are Jeffrey Immelt and Steven Ballmer, who before age fifty would become CEOs of the world's two most valuable corporations, General Electric and Microsoft. Contrary to what any reasonable person would have expected when they were new recruits, they reached the absolute apex of corporate achievement. The obvious question is how.

Was it talent? If so, it was a strange kind of talent that hadn't revealed itself in the first twenty-two years of their lives. Was it brains? These two were…