Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. 现在研究表明，缺乏天然的人才是风马牛不相及的巨大成功。 The secret? 秘诀吗？ Painful and demanding practice and hard work 痛苦的，并要求实践和辛勤工作
By Geoffrey Colvin 由杰弗里colvin

What makes Tiger Woods great?是什么使得老虎伍兹大？ What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman是什么驱使的Berkshire Hathaway主席 Warren Buffett巴菲特 the world’s premier investor?全球首屈一指的投资者？ We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing.我们认为我们知道：每一次，是一个自然的人进入世界一个礼物做到底是什么，他结束了做。 As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was “wired at birth to allocate capital.” It’sa one-in-a-million thing.由于巴菲特告诉财富不久前，他被"有线出生时，以划拨资金。 "这是一个在一万元的事。 You’ve got it - or you don’t.你已经找到了-或者你没有这样的规定。

Well, folks, it’s not so simple.好，乡亲，但并没有那么简单。 For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don’t exist.对于一件事，你不具备某种天赋，为某一个职位，因为有针对性的天赋并不存在。 (Sorry, Warren.) 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. （对不起，华伦） ， 你是不是天生的CEO或投资者或grandmaster象棋，你将实现伟大的，只有通过大量的辛勤工作多年。 And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.不只是任何艰难的工作，但工作中的某一特定类型的艰巨和痛苦的。

Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets.巴菲特，举例来说，是著名的，他的纪律和时间，他花在学习财务报表的潜在投资目标。 The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness.好消息是，你没有一个天赋是不相干的-人才，已很少或完全没有与伟大。 You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.你可以自己到任何数量的东西，你甚至可以做出自己的伟大。

Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields.科学专家们正在产生显着的结果相一致各地广泛的一系列领域的合作。 Understand that talent doesn’t mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits.明白人才，不等于智力，动机或个性特征。 It’s an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well.这是一种天生的能力做了一些具体的活动，尤其是好。 British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, “The evidence we have surveyed … does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts.”总部设在英国的研究人员卜乐豪，简小戴维森和约翰甲sluboda缔结一项广泛的研究工作， "这些证据，我们调查了…不支持[概念]好，是一个后果，藏有先天的礼物" 。

To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve.看看如何，研究人员能够达到这样一个结论，考虑问题，他们正在试图解决的问题。 In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely.在几乎每一个领域的工作，大多数人都学得很快，在第一，然后比较慢，然后停止发展完全。 Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.但有少数不改善，为几年甚至几十年，并会去上的伟大。

The irresistible question - the “fundamental challenge” for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why?那雷霆万钧的问题-"根本性挑战" ，为研究者在这一领域说，最突出的，其中教授k .安德斯爱立信的佛罗里达州立大学-是，为什么呢？ How are certain people able to go on improving?如何一些人，能够继续改善呢？ The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.答案首先一致看法的伟大演员，在许多领域的合作。

Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time.科学家们在世界各地进行的数十名研究自1993年出版一本具有里程碑意义的文件，由爱立信和两位同事，很多侧重于体育，音乐和象棋，其中的表现是比较容易测量和地积以时日。 But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.但很多额外的研究还审查了其他领域，包括企业。

No substitute for hard work 并不能代替勤奋工作

The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work.第一个主要结论是，没有人是伟大的，没有工作。 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.它的尼斯相信，如果你发现外地那里你自然天赋，你将得到很大的，从第一天开始，但它不会发生。 There’s no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.还有的，没有证据显示高层次的表现，没有经验或做法。

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.相辅相成的，没有免费午餐的调查结果，是广大的证据，即使是最有成就的人，需要大约10年的艰苦努力，才成为世界一流的，一个大格局早已确立研究者称之为10年的统治。

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16?如何鲍比菲舍尔，他成为国际象棋grandmaster在16吗？ Turns out the rule holds: He’d had nine years of intensive study.原来，该规则认为：他'd了九年深入的研究。 And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, “The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average.” In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years’ experience before hitting their zenith.正如约翰霍恩的南加州大学和博masunaga加州州立大学观察， " 10年的统治是一个非常粗略的估计，多数研究人员把它作为一项最低限度，而不是一个平均水平。 " ，在许多领域（音乐，文学） ，精英演奏家需要20年或30年的经验，才能达到顶峰。

So greatness isn’t handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work.这么伟大是不能交给任何人，它需要大量的艰苦的工作。 Yet that isn’t enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better.然而，这是不够的，因为有很多人努力工作，几十年来没有接近伟大，甚至得到显着改善。 What’s missing?缺失了什么？

Practice makes perfect 熟能生巧

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.最好的人，在任何领域，是那些献身最小时，以什么研究人员呼吁"刻意的作法" ，它的活动的明确意图，以提高业绩，为达到目标只是超越自己的水平的能力，提供了反馈结果，并涉及高水平的重复。

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don’t get better.例如：干脆打一桶球，是不是故意的做法，这就是为什么多数球员并不好起来。 Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that’s deliberate practice.创近8铁300倍同一个目标离开球在20英尺的密码，百分之八十的时间里，不断地观测结果，并作出适当的调整，并做了几个小时的每一天-这就是刻意的做法。

Consistency is crucial.一致性是关键。 As Ericsson notes, “Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends.”爱立信指出， "精英的表演，在许多不同的领域，也被发现实践中，就平均而言，大致相同数额的每一天，包括周末" 。

Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields.证据十字架显着一系列领域的合作。 In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000.在研究的20岁的小提琴手，由爱立信和他的同事，最好组（判断conservatory教师） ，平均每10000小时故意实践自己的生活;下一代最好的，平均每7500小时和明年， 5000 。 It’s the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport.它的同样的故事，在外科手术，保险销售，而且几乎每一个运动项目。 More deliberate practice equals better performance.更审慎的做法，等于更好的业绩。 Tons of it equals great performance.吨，它相当于成绩很大。

The skeptics 怀疑论者

Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center.并非所有的研究者，是完全板载与神话- -人才假说，但他们的反对去其优势，而不是它的中心。 For one thing, there are the intangibles.对于一件事，还有一些无形资产。 Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?两名运动员可能会工作同样艰难，但如何解释能力的新英格兰爱国者队四分卫汤姆布雷迪演出，在更高层次上，在最后两分钟的游戏吗？

Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age.研究人员还注意到，例如，神童，他们可以说，读，或播放音乐，在不同寻常的早期时代。 But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents.但经调查，这些案件一般都包括高度参与的家长。 And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.和许多prodigies不去就向伟大，他们早场，而伟大的表演者，其中包括许多他们没有任何特别早性向。

Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn’t do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast.当然，一些重要的性状有一部分是遗传性，如物理尺寸和特殊措施的情报，但这些影响是什么人，不这样做就超过他的一个五英尺永远上周lineman ，和一个7英尺高决不会与奥林匹克体操运动员。 Even those restrictions are less severe than you’d expect: Ericsson notes, “Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s.” The more research that’s done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.甚至那些限制较少严重比你所期待：爱立信指出， "有一些国际象棋大师才拥有的智商在90年代" ，更深入的研究指出的那样，越扎实故意实践模型变成。
Real-world examples真实世界的例子

All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years.这一切，学术研究，是根本的证据是什么伟大的演员已经向我们展示了多年。 To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century’s greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively.采取少数例子：邱吉尔的，其中一个20世纪最伟大的演讲家，练他的发言compulsively 。 Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it.弗拉基米尔贺乐维兹假定说， "如果我自己不练了一天，我知道这一点。 If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it.如果我自己不练了两天，我的妻子都知道。 If I don’t practice for three days, the world knows it.” He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.如果我自己不练了3天，全世界都知道它， "他肯定是一个恶魔，实践者，但同样的报价被归因于世界级的音乐家如伊尼亚斯帕德雷夫斯基和卢西亚诺帕瓦罗蒂。

Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines.许多伟大的运动员都具有传奇色彩，为残暴的纪律，其做法套路。 In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices.在篮球，乔丹练紧锣密鼓超越已经惩治团队的做法。 (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he’d have been cut from his high school team.) （曾约旦拥有庞大的天赋专门为篮球，这似乎不大可能，他'd ，切断了他的高中队） 。

In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.在足球，所有兼职-伟大接收机杰里米-通过了由1 5个队，因为他们认为他过于缓慢-练的刻苦程度令其他选手将生病试图跟上。

Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows.老虎伍兹是一本教科书的例子，说明研究结果表明。 Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the US Amateur Championship, at age 18.因为他的父亲介绍他到高尔夫球场处于非常早期的年龄-1 8个月内-并鼓励他的做法，密集地，老虎伍兹曾为此伤透了至少15年的实践中经过一段时期，他成为有史以来最年轻得主的美国业余锦标赛冠军，在年龄18岁。 Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that’s what it took to get even better.也符合调查结果，他从来就没有停止过设法改善，投入了很多时间，每天以调理和实践，甚至重塑了自己的挥杆两次，因为这会是它了，你能找到更好的。

The business side 商业方面

The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance.这些证据，科学知识以及轶事，似乎压倒多数赞成刻意做法，因为微软的一大表现。 Just one problem: How do you practice business?只是有一个问题：你如何实践商业？ Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable.许多内容的业务，其实，都是直接可行的。 Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.陈述，谈判，发表评价，破译财务报表-你可以练习他们所有人。

Still, they aren’t the essence of great managerial performance.还有，他们不是本质上的伟大管理绩效。 That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too?这需要作出判断和决定，不完全信息，在不确定的环境中，人际交往与人，求信息-你能实践这些东西太？ You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.你可以，但不能像你将实行萧邦练习曲。

Instead, it’s all about how you do what you’re already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes.相反，它的一切你如何做你已经做的事情-你创造实践在你的工作，这需要数个关键性的变化。 The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.首先是要在任何任务与一个新的目标：不是仅仅试图完成它，你的目标是获得更好的这件事。

Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill.报告的撰写涉及查找信息，分析，并介绍了它-每一个改进技巧。 Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company’s strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion.主持董事会会议，就要首先了解该公司的策略是在最深的方式，形成一个连贯的看法未来市场的变化，并为此制定的基调讨论。 Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.任何人是否在工作中，从最基础的工作，以最崇高的，是一个改进技巧。

Adopting a new mindset 采取的一个新观念

Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way.武装与心态，是人们去工作，在一条新路来。 Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer.研究显示，他们处理信息的更深入和留住它更长的时间。 They want more information on what they’re doing and seek other perspectives.他们希望得到更多的资料，他们是怎么做的，并寻求其他的观点。 They adopt a longer-term point of view.他们采取一个较长远的角度来看。 In the activity itself, the mindset persists.在活动本身，心态依然存在。 You aren’t just doing the job, you’re explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.你是不是刚做工作，你就明确地尝试变得更好，在它在更大的意义。

Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital.再次，研究表明，这种差异在心理的方法是至关重要的。 For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension.举例来说，当业余歌手，以歌唱的教训，他们的经验，它为乐趣，释放紧张情绪。 But for professional singers, it’s the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson.但对于专业歌手，它的相反：他们增加其浓度，并着眼于提高他们的表现，在教育课。 Same activity, different mindset.同样的活动，不同的心态。

Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business.反馈是至关重要的，并得到它应该是没有问题的业务。 Yet most people don’t seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won’t come.然而多数人并不寻求它，他们只是等待，一半希望，它会不会来。 Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, “it’s as if you’re bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level.没有它，因为高盛领导发展的掌门人史蒂夫克尔说， "这是因为如果你打保龄球，透过窗帘说，可以归结为膝关节水平。 If you don’t know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don’t get any better, and two, you stop caring.” In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture.如果您不知道如何成功，你是，两件事情发生：一，你就无法得到任何好转，两个，你停下关怀" ，有些公司，如通用电气公司，经常的反馈是文化的一部分。 If you aren’t lucky enough to get that, seek it out.如果你不是，有幸得到，在寻求它的运作情况。

Be the ball 被球

Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call “mental models of your business” - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another.通过在整个过程中，是你们的目标，是要建立什么研究者称之为"心智模式你的生意" -图片要素如何配合在一起，并相互影响。 The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.你越是工作，规模较大的你心智模式，将成为和更好的表现将会增大。

Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel (Charts) as needed. Andy Grove的，可以保持模型的整个世界日新月异的高科技产业，他的头部和适应英特尔（图）按需要发放。 Bill Gates, Microsoft’s (Charts) founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market.比尔盖茨，微软的（图表）创办人，有相同的诀窍：他可以看见在即将跨入PC就是他的目标是建立一个计算机对每一个办公桌切合实际，并且创造了一个无法想象的大市场。 John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil.约翰D洛克菲勒，也看到了未来，当世界变化的新产业是石油。 Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever.拿破仑也许是有史以来最伟大的。 He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.他不仅可以容纳所有的要素一个庞大的战役在他心目中，但更重要的是，还可以迅速作出反应，当他们转向意想不到方式。

That’sa lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically. that'sa地段集中，为造福故意实践-毫无价值，没有一个要求：做定期，而不是断断续续的。

Why? 为什么呢？

For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder.对大多数人来说，工作是努力不够，没有推更难了。 Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done.这些额外的步骤是如此艰难和痛苦的，他们几乎从来没有得到这样做。 That’s the way it must be.这就是必须的。 If great performance were easy, it wouldn’t be rare.如果伟大的表现，很容易，也并不少见。 Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness.从而导致可能最深的问题，伟大。 While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.同时，专家们了解了大量有关的行为产生伟大的表现，他们了解甚少，如该行为从何而来。

The authors of one study conclude, “We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice.” Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, “Some people are much more motivated than others, and that’s the existential question I cannot answer - why.”作者的一项研究的结论， "我们仍然不知道是哪些因素，鼓励个人从事蓄意实践" ，或者是作为美国密歇根大学商学院教授译为tichy把它经过了30年的工作与经理人， "有些人更动机比其他人，这也是存在的问题，我不能回答-为什么" 。

The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent.关键的现实是，我们不是受制于一些自然授予一级的人才。 We can make ourselves what we will.我们可以使自己有什么，我们会。 Strangely, that idea is not popular.奇怪的是，这个想法是不是受欢迎。 People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent.对人民群众深恶痛绝的，放弃概念，即他们将海岸，以名利和财富，如果他们发现自己的才华。 But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life’s inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren’t gifted and give up.但这一观点是可悲的制约，因为当他们击中的生活是不可避免的坎坷道路上，他们的结论是，他们只是没有天才，并放弃了。

Maybe we can’t expect most people to achieve greatness.也许我们不能期望大部分人达到伟大。 It’s just too demanding.这未免太苛刻。 But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn’t reserved for a preordained few.但引人注目的，解放的消息是伟大是没有预留作预定数。 It is available to you and to everyone.它是提供给你和每一个人。