Secrets to becoming a star at anything

The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance contains some very interesting findings:

1. The trait we call talent is highly overrated.

That is, expert performers – whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming – are nearly always made, not born.

 2. Practice does make perfect.

 3. When it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love – because if you don’t love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good.

The book says: “Most people naturally don’t like to do things they aren’t ‘good’ at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply don’t possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin.” But the truth is this: “What they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better.

If you don’t love your product for example, chances are you won’t do the deliberate practice it takes to learn how to talk about it so that you get good at it. If you don’t spend the time to learn to do it well, your chances of succeeding are slim to none.

So ask yourself, what do you LOVE MADLY about what you’re doing? Is it making a difference in someone’s life?  Whatever turns you on, will keep you going.

And if it’s nothing special, perhaps this business really isn’t the best thing for you to be doing.