Great news: Those of us who don’t have the “It Factor” or were not born with some mythical gift are not doomed to a life of mediocrity …
Who are “they” and what is “it?”
“Oh, they’re just gifted,” or “They were born with it.” We use these labels to explain how and why some God-like people can perform at the highest level: playing an amazingly intricate piano piece or solving a complex mathematical problem or breaking a record for some athletic feat. We use universal titles to explain why a person can run well, draw well, think well and perform well … or even sell tanning lotion well. “Oh, they have the gift” we say!
A star is born … or are they?
The problem with this popular view is that the more psychologists look at the careers and lives of the gifted, the less believable this opinion is. Upon closer inspection, natural talent seems to play a smaller role in success than that of practice and preparation. Of course, it is indisputable that some are born with natural, built-in talents and abilities. Call it luck, call it genetics, call “it” whatever you want; but talent alone is not a guaranteed free pass to Successville.
A love affair with practice
If you want to achieve elite status at anything, you need to work harder than everyone else. At some point, the elites fall in love with practice to the point that they do little else. The elite dancer is the one who, after formal class ends, continues to practice, and she practices a single step far more hours than it took to learn the form or style in the first place. The elite football player is the guy who spends all day on the practice field with his teammates, and then goes home to watch game films. The elite salesperson is the one who leaves work and researches her competitor’s products or services on her own time and drives her family crazy with non-stop, impromptu product presentations.
Natural Talent: Not Important
One of the most profound hypotheses explored in recent psych studies is the idea of natural talent. “If natural talent plays such a major role in determining success,” psychologists hypothesize, “we would expect some of the ‘naturals’ to float to the elite level of achievement with fewer practice hours than everyone else.” But the data showed otherwise. Psychologists found a direct statistical relationship between number of practice hours and achievement. No shortcuts. No naturals.
“How much practice?” you may ask. Malcom Gladwell, author of Outliers, says that the magic number seems to be around 10,000 hours.
So, maybe all of us “average” humans still have a shot at greatness even if we weren’t born with it! Just follow the formula: P x R = T. Practice multiplied by repetition equals talent!
