Friday, February 17, 2012

Talent is overrated - Geoff Colvin

Simply to say this book is good and can be life changing for you or may be to your kid.

I will get some new idea everyday, while taking bath or watching some movie or during half-sleep @ office or even at workout. Some of them are great, turned out to be great things which are implemented by someone, some are already existing and I'm ignorant of it. Many self analyzing thought made what I'm now. But the point is I'm not great, maybe by the scale of this society. Then how to define greatness - a person achieved enviable status in a field. The word field is the key here.

Being a Software Engineer I cannot become maddeningly wealthy like Buffet just by reading 'the intelligent investor'. Im already a hard-wired employee in a field who's time is controlled by someone else. And if you are married with kids personal time is a joke. There are success stories everywhere in Tennis, basketball, investing and especially entrepreneurship. Just by looking at it or researching will not make us the same. You might have known this but yet human greed takeover sometimes and we will start day-dreaming. Mostly the end result is disappointment.

If I have to become a cricketer I should have that thought by at least age 10 and played relentlessly until my skin is totally tanned. At this point this book makes a clear the 10000 hours point which Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers' is also talking about. Reading "Talent is overrated" book I can recall Arnold Schwarzenegger's quote ..

"Number one, come to America. Number two, work your butt off. And number three, marry a Kennedy."

The book says these very clearly

1. Choose your field, if you are already in a field and earning from it, its hard to leave and try new. But children has the advantage to excel enormously.
2. Deliberate practice .. it must be conscious, measurable and improving
3. Dont stick in the OK plateau if you want to become world-class
4. Never look around to excel in other area which you cannot afford to spend time on.
5. Get family support for what you are doing

Its a revealing read and can be read again if you fail to succeed in some area. The world is so competitive that only the extraordinary can win. (even in a job interview ) Can be a great book if you are a parent which can change your kids life all together.


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