What makes our top achievers in business, sports, or music great at what they do? Is it something they’re born with? Is it an overbearing parent pushing them to succeed? Is it hard work? Most of us think that talent is something we’re born with, that you either have it or not. We think that how smart someone is determines their potential. Not so much. Sure, some people have inherited advantages in rare cases, but these advantages being smarter, stronger, taller, etc, have little to no relation to how successful someone will be. How hard we work at something also has little to do with how successful we’ll be. Working hard is not equal to achievement. We all see people who work 50 hours a week and have little to show for it. Pushy parents can be helpful in the beginning to keep kids focused on practice, but in the long run, kids need to want to practice and get better to succeed.

Some things are very relevant to high achievement. Growing up in an environment where parents support their children’s growth. Believe in one’s ability to achieve, “What you believe about the source of great performance thus becomes the foundation of all you will ever achieve.” Geoff Colvin, in his book Talent Is Overrated. Having a directed practice designed to develop skills that focuses on what Dan Pink calls “Goldilocks tasks” - ones that aren’t too hard or too easy but push you just beyond what you can do now. Most of us need a coach or a mentor to help us design our directed practice. Things like sports or arts tend to be parental, at least at the start. In business, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a mentor.

So it’s not your inherited traits or hard work alone that determines if you’ll be a high achiever, it’s a dedicated lifelong practice focused on improving the skills you need most to succeed. And equally important, you have to believe that you can succeed. Becoming a high performer is not rocket science; it does not take a 130 IQ. It does take dedication and focus. According to Colvin, it takes about ten years to get from novice to exceptional performance in most areas of study or work. Even if you’re not willing to do what it takes to be a Tiger Woods, you can still improve your ability to achieve. So if you’re willing to do the work, the sky is the limit.