The Making of a Rock Star

Inborn talent? Nah. Look for “deliberate practice” and organizational support.

By Ava Seave 06/22/2009 -11:57 AM

Geoff Colvin’s recent book Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else has theoretical and practical ideas about improving performance in your chosen profession or in an avocation. The book is compelling, wonderfully written, and well worth buying (discounted to about $20 online). I particularly liked reading specifics about dozens of studies in support and opposition of his thesis. That being said, you can read an excellent summary of the book’s key points and hear the author speak about the book.

But to quickly summarize: Colvin shows through a review of current scientific thinking that what apparently makes certain people great is not inborn talent, but rather something called “deliberate practice.” This is a sustained, often life-long, purposeful effort that improves performance in a specific domain. Understanding that knowledge needs to be focused rather than general is a key point of the book.

Although this may seem obvious to publishing execs who would never be tempted to hire a circ jock to make sales calls at P&G, valuing specialized knowledge and expertise isn’t so widely held. If it were, the recent TV advertisement for Intel wouldn’t seem so hilarious. It shows Ajay Bhatt [pictured], co-inventor of the USB, who looks like your normal middle-aged engineer (accoutrements include a sweater vest and hanging id card) strutting to background music of heavy metal-ish guitar and drums into what is presumably an Intel cafeteria where he gets the rock star treatment: Pretty young women look faint when he pours coffee at the coffee machine, an employee shoves a pen into his hand for his autograph, photo flashes go off and a guy unbuttons his dress shirt to show a T-shirt with Bhatt’s face printed on it. The commercial declares “Our Rock Stars aren’t Your Rock Stars.”

You can infer from this commercial a lesson related to Colvin’s “deliberate practice”—that the environment and your colleagues are key to the success of the individual in his or her chosen sphere. A company that values and supports what makes great performances and products see the special, successful person as a “rock star.”