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Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else Hardcover – October 16, 2008

by Geoff Colvin (Author)

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Expanding on a landmark cover story in Fortune, a top journalist debunks the myths of exceptional performance.

One of the most popular Fortune articles in many years was a cover story called What It Takes to Be Great. Geoff Colvin offered new evidence that top performers in any field--from Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill to Warren Buffett and Jack Welch--are not determined by their inborn talents. Greatness doesn't come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades.

And not just plain old hard work, like your grandmother might have advocated, but a very specific kind of work. The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes, that enables you to achieve greatness.

Now Colvin has expanded his article with much more scientific background and real-world examples. He shows that the skills of business, negotiating deals, evaluating financial statements, and all the rest obey the principles that lead to greatness, so that anyone can get better at them with the right kind of effort. Even the hardest decisions and interactions can be systematically improved.

This new mind-set, combined with Colvin's practical advice, will change the way you think about your job and career and will inspire you to achieve more in all you do.

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Geoff Colvin has written a fascinating study of great achievers from Mozart to Tiger Woods, and he has brilliantly highlighted the fact that great effort equals great success.I agree, and Talent Is Overrated is not only inspiring but enlightening. It's a terrific read all the way through."-Donald Trump

"Talent Is Overrated is 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 the rare business book that will both prompt you to think and inspire you to act."-Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind

About the Author

Geoff Colvin, Fortune’s senior editor at large, is one of America’s most respected journalists. He lectures widely and is the regular lead moderator for the Fortune Global Forum. A frequent television guest, Colvin also appears daily on the CBS Radio Network, reaching seven million listeners each week. He coanchored Wall Street Week on PBS for three years. He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut.

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Product details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Portfolio; 1 edition (October 16, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591842247
ISBN-13: 978-1591842248
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
Average Customer Review: 404 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #177 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Adolescent Psychology
- #589 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Applied Psychology
- #1133 in Books > Business & Money > Job Hunting & Careers > Guides

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Top customer reviews

Great book that explored the nature of talent

ByKindle Customeron December 16, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This was one of the best books that I have ever read on the topic on talent and skill development! It has a similar concept to "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, but takes the concept a bit further. In this book, Geoff Colvin explores whether people with extraordinary talent (such as Lebron James or Yo Yo Ma) have some hidden advantage that makes them great.

His answers delves into the nature of how we learn, how we develop skills and whether we have the ability to jump from playing amateur golf on the weekends to the PGA tour. A great book and one that I would highly recommend!!

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

If you want to get better, this book can help

ByMP.on July 29, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The work is what matters. Talent Is Overrated makes that point clear with informational anecdotes, statistics, and compelling language. Geoff Colvin breaks down what makes the top performers who they are. His ability to see past the false narrative of talent being the main cause of success, is a gift for all of us. It's all about practice, but it's deeper than that. You have to know how to practice. Geoff breaks down what makes practice effective with a model anybody can follow. It's always a treat when a personal development book has facts for proof, convincing narratives, and action steps. If you want to get better, this book can help. It's not just for athletes, musicians, and such. It can be used for doctors, writers, students, and everybody in between. Because talent is overrated, the work matters.

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Finally the truth we all need!

ByMuscle Profon June 20, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book should be read along with Ericsson's Peak and Duckworth's Grit. They both support the science that talent has been away for some to explain away and dismiss the enormous amount of time and effort (now known as deliberate practice and purposeful practice) that individuals devote to being great at somethings. It really is an insult to the top tennis players that they must have talent when in actuality they sacrifice a lot in their lives that we choose to do--like they get up at 4am to practice while others are still asleep. Know what what want and know what you believe is the authors last idea. If we believe that hard work and deliberate practice are the starting point and tools to be great at something then this books removes the excuses and asks, "So now what's your excuse for not working hard to be the best?" Be careful reading this book and consider yourself warned. You may actually become great at the "what" in life that you've always dreamed about. Great dreams and dreams of being great at something really can become a reality!!

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Rethinking the Concept of "Talent"

ByAmazon Customeron November 29, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Colvins main argument in this book, which goes against most people's beliefs, is that becoming great at something is not dependent on natural talents, but rather many hours of deliberate practice over decades. Deliberate practice is focused practice designed to improve specific needs. It “can be repeated a lot; feedback on results is continuously available, and it is highly demanding mentally” (66).
The book showcases countless examples of how high achievers train and work on their craft. Many of the examples of people who have achieved success are well-known individuals. Colvin explains that even “child geniuses” that are renowned for their incredible achievements from a young age, such as Mozart and Tiger Woods, were not born doing these things. The subjects used as examples range from the 1700s to today, and from the fields of sports to music to business. The wide range of evidence helps to prove how universal the need for deliberate practice is, and certainly helps his other claims.
The people cited in this paper are inspirational to many, and appeal to different reader’s interests. For example, as someone interested in financial investing, learning about Warren Buffett's interests and work ethic is very intriguing to me. Colvin explains the long process that Buffett went through to achieve success and his ventures along the way. Buffett learned as much as he could about the field of investing and eventually was able to “accumulate a world-class record for performance” (35).
It is proven that general abilities such as intelligence or memory are not great indicators of success, which is an assumption that many make. This delves even more into the idea that talent is unimportant. As far as the structure goes, the reader can flip to any chapter and get an explanation about an aspect of great performance or an application of it. The writing can be bland at times, but flows well and is easy to read, as the prose showcases the author’s vocabulary without making his explanations difficult to understand.
This book still certainly has its fair share of issues. Colvin does not talk about the importance of environment much at all, and doesn’t recognize that many people don’t have access to good mentors and coaches or are able to get feedback on their work. He fails to realize that having a lucky break or good connections often have a huge influence on people’s success.
Overall, the book brings a new perspective to a widely accepted view that is prevalent in every one of our lives. Colvin explains and helps people understand how some are able to achieve great success at what they do. The book is very valuable, and can help anyone to become better and more efficient at what they do for a living. It shows you that is never too late to push yourself and work on becoming extraordinary.