
Talent is Overrated 2nd Edition
What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
Geoff Colvin(Author)
Nicholas Brealey Publishing
Published on 7. February 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-5293-0913-3 (ISBN)
Description
What if everything you know about raw talent, hard work, and great performance is wrong?
Very few people are truly great at what they do. But why aren't they? Why don't we manage businesses like Warren Buffett, play golf like Tiger Woods or play the violin like Itzhak Perlman?
Greatness doesn't come from inborn talent but from 'deliberate practice'. This isn't the kind of hard work that your parents told you about, but more of it equals better performance. Talent is Overrated will change the way you think about your life and work - and will inspire you to achieve more in everything you do. Great performance isn't reserved for a preordained few.
Very few people are truly great at what they do. But why aren't they? Why don't we manage businesses like Warren Buffett, play golf like Tiger Woods or play the violin like Itzhak Perlman?
Greatness doesn't come from inborn talent but from 'deliberate practice'. This isn't the kind of hard work that your parents told you about, but more of it equals better performance. Talent is Overrated will change the way you think about your life and work - and will inspire you to achieve more in everything you do. Great performance isn't reserved for a preordained few.
Reviews / Votes
Excellent. - The Wall Street JournalProvocative. - Time
A profoundly important book. With clarity and precision, Geoff Colvin exposes one of the fundamental misconceptions of modern life - that our ability to excel depends on innate qualities. Then, drawing on an array of compelling stories and stacks of research, he reveals the true path to high performance - deliberate practice fueled by intrinsic motivation. This is a rare business book that will prompt you to think and inspire you to act. - Daniel H Pink, author of A Whole New Mind
Colvin convincingly argues that top performers in business as well as in sports, in science and in the arts owe their success to the intense practice of key skills rather than to some unique genius. - Newsweek
Mr Colvin reassures us that the techniques for greatness can be learnt easily. - The Times
The core principle underlying Geoff Colvin's new book is that hard work pays. Indeed, Colvin gives all of us mortals hope. - Management Today
Geoff Colvin has done all of us a great service... this gem will be my pick for the best business books of the year. It's a brilliant piece of work, and it deserves to be studied by anyone involved in human development. - The Leadership Challenge
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Murray Press
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 136 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
261 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5293-0913-3 (9781529309133)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Geoff Colvin
Talent is Overrated 2nd Edition
What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
E-Book
02/2019
1st Edition
John Murray Business
€3.99
Available for download

E-Book
01/2011
John Murray Business
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Geoff Colvin is Fortune's senior editor-at-large and is also the author of Talent is Overrated and The Upside of the Downturn. He has served as moderator of the Fortune Global Forum, where he has interviewed Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Herb Kelleher, Peter Drucker and other business legends. Colvin graduated Harvard cum-laude with a B.A. in Economics, and received his MBA from New York University's Stern School.