What is talent? The Wesbank ad got it spot on

The visuals are Zen-like: a wizened martial arts practitioner throws an apple in an arch over his head, closes his eyes for a moment of serene concentration, then turns, whips out his katana sword and slices the flying apple clean in half. (You can watch it at: www.wesbank.co.za/WesBankCoZa/about/tvad/index.jspx)

As the apple splits neatly in two, the voice-over concludes, “What the study found was: practice makes perfect.”

It's an over-simplification. But it's basically true. That is how talent works.

I'm fascinated by the idea of talent, and after a studious dig through my favourite resource, Exclusive Books, I found a title called Talent is Overrated. The author, Geoff Colvin, summarises the findings of just about every major study ever conducted on talent, with surprising results.

Turns out it's not about genius, prodigy, genetics or built-in propensity. Rather, the finding is that there exists a basic formula for talent. And it is simply this:

Talent = Yearning + Input + Deliberate Practice, sustained over time.

That's it. That's all there is to it. But if we dig into each of these key words, we'll discover that each one represents some enormous depth and complexity. And each one leaves us with specific ideas and instructions for ways to grow our own talent, whatever our field of interest.

Let's work through them one at a time, unpacking the opportunities:

Yearning:

You have to want to. Failing that, you'll never bother.

Ironically, this element of desire might be the reason why so many great names in history came from difficult backgrounds and even broken homes. It's not that they succeeded in spite of their difficulties. They may have succeeded, in part, because of them.

Just read Stephen King's book On Writing, in which he describes his own awful history, and how desperate he was to ‘get out.' Step one in developing talent: You have to want it badly enough. No desire, no progress.

Input:

No one gets terribly far without specific knowledge of their craft. That sounds obvious. But it also implies that the more specific knowledge you gather, the greater your opportunity to develop your own talent.

There are many ways to get Input in any field or industry. The best form of Input by far is personal coaching. Regrettably, in most professional endeavours, it's rare. Not many managers take the time to coach their employees in ‘how', rather than just ‘what' to do. In sports, it's available, but expensive.

But there are many alternate ways to source Input; you could read books, subscribe to the industry publications, download videos of lectures and audio articles, attend speeches, or become part of the industry body that oversees your area of expertise.

As a professional speaker, I am a member of both Toastmasters International and the Professional Speakers Association. The input is invaluable and helps me to develop my own talent in the professional speaking field.

Deliberate Practice:

You might play golf for twenty years and still not improve very much (Hang your head in shame!). Or you could spend six months focusing on ‘deliberate practice,' and increase your skill considerably.

Deliberate practice is different to mindless repetition. It is the act of constantly and thoughtfully evaluating your own performance, identifying areas for improvement, then working on them diligently. Self-awareness and a brutal drive for better results are key here.

Sustaining it over time:

The above formula is the way to build talent in any endeavour. There is no other way to accomplish excellence but through those steps. But it's all in vain if you don't sustain it over time. It's worth pointing out that most ‘great' performers only became formidable after ten or more years' practice at their craft. Talent - in geniuses or in us regular dullards - never happens overnight.

Even among those we consider prodigies (Mozart, Tiger Woods, Bill Gates or Michael Jackson), if you dig into their personal histories, you consistently discover that they had unusual amounts of training and mentoring, and it almost always took them 10 years or more to become the great names we know today.

Sceptical? Think about this: Tiger Woods was two years old when his father first put a golf club into his eager hands. Sure, he was an overnight success...after only 20 years of practice!

So the ad was right. Next time you whip out your kendo sword and fail to slice the apple cleanly in half, don't lose faith. Pick that apple right up, evaluate what happened, and try again. Another decade or two and you can also be that good!

The key learning? Two things:

1. Talent = yearning + input + deliberate practice, sustained over time.
2. Genius is not the key. Time and mindful practice are. Don't be discouraged by a slow start. Talent can, as the ad suggests, be drawn from you, inch by inch!