Thesis
The innate capacities that some people have are insufficient without hard designed training for reaching high and higher performances. Even if people do not possess innate capacities in some fields, they can still achieve great performances if they are motivated, if they put passion and hard work into what they do. This is what Geoff Colvin calls deliberate practice in his book “Talent is Overrated”, showing how people can be successful even if they are not born with talent, but have the motivation, the resources and desire to succeed.
Situation – What Motivated the Author to Write the Book
Geoff Colvin wrote “Talent is Overrated” for researching what really is the key of the success of great performers, regardless the domain in which they activate – the innate talent or something else? Colvin was motivated to write the book in order to show people what they need to do for achieving great performance in whatever they proposed, observing that there are a lot of talented or hard – working people who still do not achieve performances, even if they pursue it for years. “Why don’t they manage business like Jack Welch or Andy Grove, or play golf like Tiger Woods, or play the violin like Itzhak Perlman” (Colvin 2). The author is determined to investigate how great athletes, successful businessmen or artists achieved they greatness and why other people who work just as hard cannot achieve it. In relation to the thesis statement, the author is about to discover what he intended to find out regarding what makes a successful person or company successful, besides innate talent, smartness or hard work, which is deliberate practice. “The factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice” (Colvin 7).
The Audience
The book is intended to everybody who desires to perform, both individuals and organizations, as it is in each individual’s power to obtain great results for himself/herself if he/she pursues his/her passion in time and the organizations have the power to motivate and train people to perform, achieving competitive advantage and significant business performances. The book tells individuals and organizations how to achieve personal and/or organizational success, delivering a theoretic receipt, based on the underpinned research, but also practical cases, investigating the roots of the success of great athletes, artists or businessmen. “It isn’t just companies that have to keep kicking up their performance more than they ever did before. It’s each of us individually” (Colvin 11). This quote indicates the target audience of the book, explaining that everybody needs to perform better, to improve their results, to aim to achieve success, because of the changes that occur in the economy, as the author further explains. To be constantly aiming for achieving performance implies hard work, passion and resources, but most of all motivation, qualities that both individuals and companies must possess, and to pursue the success through applying deliberate practice in their work. “‘deliberate practice’. () An understanding of it illuminates the path to high achievement in any field, not just by individuals but also by teams and organizations’” (Colvin 64).
Purpose – What Does the Writer Hope to Accomplish
Claim, the Argument
Geoff Colvin claims in “Talent is Overrated” that talent can be learned, that one requires deliberate practice for achieving performance and that people can change mental capacity, just as organizations can change culture with practice. Although the author states that while starting to work through deliberate practice at an early age brings greater results, people can also work by applying deliberate practice as adults, through coaching and training activities. “the people who do become top-level achievers are rarely child prodigies. That is certainly true in business; the early lives of the Welches, Ogilvies, and Rockefellers almost never hint at the success to come” (Colvin 197). This quote indicates that adult people can improve their skills with practice but having implicitly the motivation to succeed. “But the evidence shows also that by understanding how a few become great, anyone can become better” (Colvin 206).
Works Cited
Colvin, Geoff. Talent Is Overrated. New York, Penguin Group. 2008. Print.
