Book review of Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Book review of Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

There is no such thing as talent, and there are no geniuses. The book cites studies which show that top musicians can only get that way by putting in a certain amount of practice hours beforehand. Mozart was not a genius, but rather “Mozart became Mozart by working furiously hard”.

Many top performers such as business leader Jack Welch, Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer, and many others showed no aptitude for their field of expertise when young, and only when older, when they put the work in, did their results materialise.

The book says that putting in lots of practice is hard work, and top performers don't like doing it, but they do it anyway. Work is painful and uncomfortable but the successful people recognise that this is the price they must pay, whereas other people would rather avoid it.

World class performers in any discipline have usually practised far more than most people from an early age. The book says that top performers use “deliberate practice”, I.e they focus on what they are doing and keep monitoring their practice sessions and results. They don't just mindlessly go through the motions. This is the strategy explained in one of my favourite books The Power Of Focus.

The book goes on a bit too much about having to work hard all the time, and doesn't present any situations where a less experienced person has achieved fantastic results by avoiding a lot of hard work, simply by having a good plan. When facing a new challenge there isn't always enough time to have the experience necessary to make an optimum choice. Instead, a quick decision must be made. In these situations all you can do is take your best shot, and hope you get lucky. The book Think and Grow Rich says “It's not the lawyer who knows the most law that wins, but the one who prepares the best case”.

The book can be quite discouraging when you realise that in any challenge, your competitors may have far more experience than you. So how do you and me as normal people catch up? The answer is contained in books like The Millionaire Mind, which say people who are disadvantaged must find or create alternative paths to success. We must compensate for our deficiencies, compose alternative strategies. If someone is more experienced than you, you can still beat them with a good plan. The book The Millionaire Next Door talked of the handicapped fighter pilot who beat opponents more skilled than himself by having a superior attack plan. Recently, the underdog boxer David Haye beat the bigger and more experienced champion Nikolai Valuev, by having a better fight strategy, proving that lack of experience in comparison to your opponents is no reason to give up.

The book doesn't really address the issue of “procrastination”. It is quite possible to know your goal, and want to put the work in, yet not be able to lift a finger to do anything about it, due to laziness. I meet these type of people all the time, and also suffer from procrastination myself from time to time. Luckily there are many books out there with good strategies on overcoming procrastination. The best books I've found so far are The Procrastinators Handbook, and Get Everything Done.

It's a very well researched book, and you can tell the author really wants to uncover the truth about where talent comes from. The book says great performance starts from the mind; if you believe that if you put the work in you will become great in your chosen field, then it is more likely you will put the effort in and achieve your dreams. Success is not for a privileged few, anyone can do it, but it will probably take a lot of work beforehand.

Moneyseeker3000 rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

The book Talent is Overrated, takes away another excuse that people have for not making money, because they now can't say that rich people are that way because they are more talented. Rich people have put the work in, and use basic wealth building strategies to seek and maintain wealth. It isn't always fun, but they put the work in anyway.

I'm now reading Open, the autobiography of Tennis champion Andre Agassi. Amazingly, he says he has always hated the game of tennis, but he put the work in anyway, and achieved success. I became interested in Agassi's story years ago, after he was briefly mentioned in the book The Power Of Focus, where it explains how he was a winner who started losing badly but eventually returned to  massive success. He took responsibility for his performance and proved that he could beat people much younger and better than him, by having a good plan, and by putting the practice in.

You don't have to love what you do to become a success at it. I don't always love seeking money, but as long as I keep working to  my plan, I expect to achieve a good measure of financial success.