Success is created by hard work

Great personal achievements in business and other fields are not results of natural gift. There is no evidence of any high-level performance without experience or practice. It requires a lot of hard work. Nobody becomes great without work.

British researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study that the evidence they have surveyed does not support the notion that excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts.

Talent is an ability to do some specific activity especially well. The best people in any field are those who devote most time to what the researchers call "deliberate practice", which is an activity explicitly intended to improve performance for reaching objectives beyond one's level of competence, providing feedback on results and involving high levels of repetition. Consistency is crucial, occasional practice does not work.

Experts are showing remarkably consistent findings across a wide range of fields of human activities. In a 1993 publication professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University and two colleagues report their study of performance by measuring it over time, especially in sports, music and chess. Numerous other studies have also examined other fields, including business.

Let's look at just one example. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group - judged by conservatory teachers - averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next: 5,000. Deliberate practice results in better performance, and very much of it leads to great performance. Even the most accomplished people often need approximately ten years of hard work for becoming really great in their field. Researchers call this phenomenon "the ten-year" rule. Practice makes perfect.

Deliberate practice in business is also necessary, just like it is in other fields. Searching for information, making decisions based on imperfect information and in uncertain environment, interacting with people and negotiating - these are just some of the activities one can improve by practice. It is all about how one does things: instead of merely trying to get things done, one should aim at getting better results and improving skills. The right mindset and feedback are essential for improvements and success.

However, although experts understand exactly what behaviour causes great performance, they know little about the causes of such behaviour. Why are certain people more able to continuously work towards improvement, than others? Some individuals are much more motivated than others to engage in deliberate and persistent practice, and the crucial question that still needs to be answered is: why.