TRANSCRIPTION OF VIDEO
Welcome to your next video, is talent overrated. I’m Vaughan Liddicoat.
The very word talent means an innate ability, natural endowment, or superior quality.
Recent research in the field of human endeavor has revealed that one of the primary reasons people believe this definition is because there’s no other universally accepted idea. It’s easy to think that because others excel…they’re more gifted, special, or naturally selected towards that field than you are.
To me that’s a cop out. It’s a way of you justifying why you don’t step up to the plate and put yourself through the challenge and the paces to become excellent in your field.
If you justify to yourself that talent or luck is what predetermines success, then that means that we’re either blessed or not. Now, if you feel this way let me assure you there’s a string of evidence that suggests that there’s a whole lot more to it than meets the eye.
In the study of human endeavor, Nobel peace prize winners Herbert Simon and William Chase revealed the 10 year rule in any field. Now, this rule is incredibly powerful. It means that if certain parameters are actually met on a daily basis, then anyone can be great in a chosen field. It takes a minimum of 10 years and sometimes 20.
Now, in my own life I’ve actually understood this without actually knowing this research.
When I was 18 I decided I wanted to become a world class ballroom dancer. I had no previous experience. I literally had 2 left feet. And I’d not actually practiced dancing until I was 18 years old. Now, I found that there were certain levels that I had to go through as I got better and better.
My wife, who was also my dance partner, we practiced almost daily with only 2 weeks off per year. We put in very specific training, very deliberate practice with constant feedback. We had between 2 to 5 private lessons per week, which gave us this feedback. It gave us support and correct technique.
And finally we ended up moving to London to work with the world’s best coaches for a few years. Now, where the knowledge, the training, the feedback, the mindset, and the strategies, that’s where they became even more specific to our specific field and genre.
Now, it wasn’t until we hit our 10th year that we literally became world professional representatives. And looking back, I can see very clearly what it took to break through each level and to hit a new level of success. These same parameters are what all highly successful people in areas like business, art, economics, academia, writing, sport, and more do.
Now, there’s a lot of research to back it up as well. Allow me to share one such study conducted at the Music Academy of West Berlin, which is now called the Berlin University of Arts. Researchers gathered 3 groups of violinists together: good, better, and the best.
They all had a similar age, in their 20s, they had the same sex, and they’re in similar backgrounds. Now, they collected the data on how much practice they had done, when they’d started to studying music, the teachers they had, the competition, and much more. They had a trove of data.
The researchers also asked them to track their entire activities for one week minute by minute, including non music related activities. All of it was verified and confirmed. Now, ironically the three groups, the good, the better, and the best, were all about the same.
Now, that is, they started studying music at the age of 8, they decided to become musicians at 15, they had spent the same amount of time on music related activities like lessons and practice, classes and rehearsals, they all spent their waking hours thinking, dedicating, and committing to being the best violin players with a very demanding work schedule. They all totaled around 51 hours per week of violin study together.
Now, if that’s the case, then what really separated the good players from the better ones and the better ones from the best ones? When each candidate was asked to rate non musical activities and musical activities in priority, the number one activity that stood out above all else was practicing by themselves. Now, they all knew it but they all didn’t do it.
You see, the good ones only practiced solo for about 9 hours per week whereas the better and the best ones, they practiced for 24 hours a week.
Now, when asked to rank the effort required for solo practice, they said it was the hardest practice and playing for fun was very pleasurable. They were very adamant that the extremely hard work and most difficult work was solo practice. The practice also demanded that they live their lives a very specific way. Their life revolved around their practice.
The better and the best also required more recovery time and increased sleep time. Now, there’s one other piece of information that’s very important to realize: if the two top groups are doing solo practice for 24 hours each, then what is the difference between the better group and the best group? It’s a good question.
And the answer is actually in the cumulative practice before this research study took place. So the good group had actually acquired 3,420 hours of practice before 18. The better group had acquired 5,301 hours before the age of 18. And the best group? 7,410 hours by the age of 18.
Now, this landmark research dispels the notion that talent was predisposed. History is littered with examples of people making extraordinary successes in fields that are not obvious to them. Now, what does this mean for you? Well, it doesn’t mean you have… if you’re 50 years old you have to crawl into a little ball and hide because you think you haven’t got enough time to be great. That’s not true. The rewards in the process are actually the whole point.
If you reach the pinnacle in your field, then wonderful. But it’s the journey to get there that’s very important. And by way of this research, you need to understand 3 myths that surround talent.
Myth One: You’ve either got it or you don’t.
Now, that’s an old school mentality and it’s really the only justifiable explanation for why some people are awesome at what they do and others are not.
Myth Two: the high achievement myth.
Being a high achiever does not mean you have talent.
Myth Three: Hard work
Hard work and length of time does not mean that you’re dedicated enough. It’s not enough to become a peak performer just how long you do it. See, how long you do it does not necessarily make you better.
Have you ever noticed that there are people, maybe in your own line of work, that have been in their career for 20 years and they really haven’t improved? Really from their first year on they’re about the same. Now, for some reason we seem to believe that just because someone’s been doing something for 20 years that they’re the best. It’s not true at all.
Often we find that the very best people are actually the ones that have just come out of University or really just studied and worked harder and more longer… longer than anybody else. It’s because they’ve been focused, they’ve been doing deliberate practice.
So the difference really is between the mindset of the individual, which determines who is in the top group, versus the average performers. The best rise up because of their daily consistent and very deliberate effort that’s put in over a very consecutive period of time.
Now, as we see in the violin players, it’s the cumulative practice. Refining, honing a few single important skills that rise over the talent myth.
Now, you have a choice. You can either believe that you are more capable of what you think you are, or that you just stay on the lucky, talented bandwagon and you lose. Now, if you’re like me, this research has helped prove something I went through in my own life. And that with the right goals, the right team in place, the knowledge of what will work, and with the right mindset, you will literally be able to do anything that you set your mind to and you can have what you want. But you need to be prepared to do the work.
But remember, you’re going to have to pay your dues well in advance. No one’s ever going to be able to do the specific work that matters the most. And nobody can promise you the success that you deserve. But you can have it if you’re willing to pay the dues.
Finally, you might find that the pressures of your own life and career doesn’t allow you for finding time to dedicate to focus on these specific skills that you must have. You have to make the time.
And you also might find that you’re in a career or a business where it doesn’t actually seem obvious what you need to deliberately practice. So with sport, arts, and performance, the whole genre is really geared around that. But it’s not really clear when you’re in a small business or a professional career or a job, but it is there. You’re going to have to need to think about it, you’ll then need to realize that there is something that you can focus on within that area to build the skill up. And when you do this, not only will you start performing better and build confidence, but you’ll also start attracting promotions and opportunities to you.
You can literally outgrow your position, expand your business or your sales by this type of effort alone. This is a fundamental law of success, that no matter what has happened before, no matter how bad things might seem, with the right strategy and the right practice, you can achieve your goals and live your dreams out loud.
This is Vaughan Liddicoat and I want to thank you for your time.
