Talent is Overrated
What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
by Geoff Colvin
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“Geoff Colvin has written a fascinating study of great achievers from Mozart to Tiger Woods.... Talent Is Overrated is not only inspiring but enlightening. | Talent is not innate it comes from thousands of hours of deliberate practice: focused improving of your shortcomings. That's it. If you can get past the first 20% of the book that just asks questions, the next 60% is quite good.”
Source →“Geoff Colvin has written a fascinating study of great achievers from Mozart to Tiger Woods.... Talent Is Overrated is not only inspiring but enlightening. | Talent is not innate it comes from thousands of hours of deliberate practice: focused improving of your shortcomings. That's it. If you can get past the first 20% of the book that just asks questions, the next 60% is quite good.”
Source →Recommended by 4 notable people, including Derek Sivers and Josh Waitzkin
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Recommended by 5 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Leadership, and Psychology.
Very few people are truly great at what they do. But why aren't they Why don't they manage businesses like Warren Buffett, play golf like Tiger Woods or play the violin like Itzhak PerlmanGreatness 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 equa...
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Why recommended
Recommended by 5 sources and appears in Most Recommended Books, Leadership, and Psychology.
Recommended by notable people
People and public figures who have recommended this book.
Recommendation Signals
Recommendation proof is sourced from public posts, interviews, reading lists, and cited references.
Derek Sivers
Author; founder of CD Baby
“Geoff Colvin has written a fascinating study of great achievers from Mozart to Tiger Woods.... Talent Is Overrated is not only inspiring but enlightening. | Talent is not innate it comes from thousands of hours of deliberate practice: focused improving of your shortcomings. That's it. If you can get past the first 20% of the book that just asks questions, the next 60% is quite good.”
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Not sure if this is the right fit?
Consider The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Recommended by 8 sources.
“Soft-spoken, heavily illustrated fable built from short dialogues and watercolor sketches. Each spread pairs a spare line of text with a loose drawing, so the pleasure is visual and aphoristic rather than narrative; readers collect felt-true sentences more than plot. Most useful when you want quick consolations, a prompt for conversation with a child, or a pause during a rough day. Limiting if you want sustained argument, concrete advice, or tightly plotted storytelling: the repetition of gentleness can feel sentimental or thin after a while.”
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Each recommendation is collected from a public source — interviews, articles, or curated lists — and linked to its original URL. Books with many verifiable recommendations from respected people rank higher.
Talent is Overrated
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