Secret Of Greatness : No Not Natural Talent Alone, But Determined Hardwork

Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work. Reviewing the book -Secrets Of Greatness, compiled by the Editors of Fortune, Geoffrey Colvin writes that, in virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful. Lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great. Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits
From the editors of Fortune magazine comes The Secrets of Greatness, which captures the advice, wisdom and guiding principles that todays top CEOs and entrepreneurs live by in their careers and personal lives - the first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice. The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition. The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few and it is available to you and to everyone. Interesting read.