Secrets of Greatness: What it Takes to be Great
January 29, 2008
Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work
By Geoffrey Colvin
What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett the world’s premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was “wired at birth to allocate capital.” It’s a one-in-a-million thing. You’ve got it - or you don’t.
Well, folks, it’s not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don’t exist. (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. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that’s demanding and painful.
Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your 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. It’s an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. 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.”
To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. 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.
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? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.
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Develop A Sense of Urgency
October 1, 2007
Highly productive people take the time to think, plan and set priorities. They then launch quickly and strongly toward their goals and objectives. They work steadily, smoothly and continuously and seem to go through enormous amounts of work in the same time period that the average person spends socializing, wasting time and working on low value activities.
Getting into “Flow”
When you work on high value tasks at a high and continuous level of activity, you can actually enter into an amaz ing mental state called “flow.” Almost everyone has experienced this at some time. Really successful people are those who get themselves into this state far more often than the average.
In the state of “flow,” which is the highest human state of performance and productivity, something almost mirac ulous happens to your mind and emotions. You feel elated and clear. Everything you do seems effortless and accurate. You feel happy and energetic. You experience a tremendous sense of calm and personal effectiveness.
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Leadership Skills Training: 5 Irrefutable, Non-Negotiable Laws of Leadership You Must Know Now
July 12, 2007
Leaders, new and old, sometimes lose sight of the most fundamental tenets of leadership. Here’s a reminder… I frequently tell executives that leadership and its concepts, theories and core applications haven’t changed in a millennium.
Some of our demographics may have changed. This forces us to use alternative applications of those concepts. But the basic leadership concepts and theories remain.
So, why don’t we “just do it?”
Sometimes we aren’t motivated. Sometimes the “time” just doesn’t seem right. Maybe we simply forgot some of the basics… hence this article.
When I train companies and corporations worldwide on how to improve management and organization performance, I start off with these 5 laws new and experienced leaders should never ever forget.
Kevin’s Leadership Skills Training Survival Kit for New & Experienced Managers
Leadership Law #1: Never delay a decision that must be made.
Make your decision and move on. You may have to immediately make another decision. This doesn’t mean your first one was wrong. It merely means that your second one had the benefit of additional knowledge.
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Optimizing Your I.Q. and Maximizing the Brain’s Potential
May 2, 2007
Everyone has heard of an IQ test. The potential of the brain is called intelligence quotient or I.Q. These tests use the theories of unitary and multiple, which is believed to the two main theories when studying the brain.
Unitary refers to the part of the brain where the linguistic and mathematical capacities and confined them to that area. While the multiply theory include the parts of the brain that use visual/ spatial, musical/rhythmic, body/kinesthetic, interpersonal or intrapersonal development.
It has been determined that there is only three ways to increase your brains potential.
You first have to determine what you are good at. Very few people are good at everything. A person is considered intelligent whether their skill is derived from music, visual, body, or intrapersonal, intelligence.
Most people possess these skills and probably do not even realize it. If you are a creative person at heart, try your hand at writing, acting or singing.
You may be amazed at how well you do. Some people are born with in affinity for numbers; you may not think it is anything special, however others may. There are so many different areas in which you the potential excel.
Gymnastics, Dancing, building or designing, you do not know what you are capable of doing until you try. You get the most amazing feeling when you accomplish something you have never done before. If you do not even try, you are doing yourself a great disservice.
Very few people are classified as geniuses. A genius is a person who has extreme intelligence. Such people include Einstein, Mozart and Bach. These brilliant men accomplished greatness through their genius. This is not to say that you have to be a genius to be successful. It simply means that you should use your brain to the fullest extent that you can. The more you try to improve yourself, the more your brain will benefit from it. When you utilize your brains potential you can achieve anything. Using your will power can point you in the right direction.
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