Talent is Overrated.

Many people think talent is something which is inborn and people with them have advantage over others. Talent is something which separates high achievers from low achievers but author says this is not true. Talent is gained by hard work. And anyone who is ready to work hard and smart can achieve any reasonable goal he desires

----------------------

Here are 7 lessons I learned from Talent Is Overrated.

Lesson 1: Exceptional Talent Is A Function of Hard Work Over Time

Lesson 2:  There Is A Blueprint You Can Follow To Get ‘Talented’

Lesson 3: You Can Develop Talent (Expertise) In Any Discipline

Lesson 4:  Developing Talent Is Hard Work

Lesson 5: You Can Use The Blueprint As A Teaching Tool

Lesson 6: You Don’t Have To Get To Virtuoso Level To Outrank Your Competitors

Lesson 7:  Those Who Only Read Don’t Improve – Those Who Implement, Grow And Thrive

----------------------

Practice and experience are not the same thing.

A 1990 study in the UK among 257 musicians showed that none of the top performers were:

a.) showing signs of great achievements before picking up serious practice with their instrument.

b.) improving faster when practicing, than their peers.

So not only did they have no inborn talent or capacity for greatness, they also needed just as much practice as their friends.

But if they all built up the same amount of experience and no one was particularly talented, how come there were such big differences in how people performed?

It’s because practice and experience are two different things.

You can make pizzas for 20 years, and still make crappy pizzas (please don’t do that, I love pizza).

We all know someone who’s worked at the same company, doing the same job for decades, which means they never improved to the point where they wanted to take on new things or received a promotion.

This happens when you stop improving, because you’re doing good enough of a job.

Yes, doing the same thing over and over again will build experience, but it’s still the same experience that you’re building.

What you need is new, additional, unfamiliar experience, and that only comes with practice. Deliberate practice, to be exact.