Talent is Overrated 2nd Edition: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

Description

What if everything you know about raw talent, hard work, and great performance is wrong? Very few people are truly great at what they do. But why aren't they? Why don't we manage businesses like Warren Buffett, play golf like Tiger Woods or play the violin like Itzhak Perlman? Greatness doesn't come from inborn talent but from 'deliberate practice'. This isn't the kind of hard work that your parents told you about, but more of it equals better performance. TALENT IS OVERRATED will change the way you think about your life and work - and will inspire you to achieve more in everything you do. Great performance isn't reserved for a preordained few.

Geoff Colvin is Fortune's senior editor-at-large and is also the author of Talent is Overrated and The Upside of the Downturn. He has served as moderator of the Fortune Global Forum, where he has interviewed Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Herb Kelleher, Peter Drucker and other business legends. Colvin graduated Harvard cum-laude with a B.A. in Economics, and received his MBA from New York University's Stern School.

Excellent. - The Wall Street Journal Provocative. - Time A profoundly important book. With clarity and precision, Geoff Colvin exposes one of the fundamental misconceptions of modern life - that our ability to excel depends on innate qualities. Then, drawing on an array of compelling stories and stacks of research, he reveals the true path to high performance - deliberate practice fueled by intrinsic motivation. This is a rare business book that will prompt you to think and inspire you to act. - Daniel H Pink, author of A Whole New Mind Colvin convincingly argues that top performers in business as well as in sports, in science and in the arts owe their success to the intense practice of key skills rather than to some unique genius. - Newsweek Mr Colvin reassures us that the techniques for greatness can be learnt easily. - The Times The core principle underlying Geoff Colvin's new book is that hard work pays. Indeed, Colvin gives all of us mortals hope. - Management Today Geoff Colvin has done all of us a great service... this gem will be my pick for the best business books of the year. It's a brilliant piece of work, and it deserves to be studied by anyone involved in human development. - The Leadership Challenge