In the book Talent Is Overrated, Jeff Colvin, Senior Editor at Large for Fortune Magazine, suggests that he has found a missing link – the difference between being mediocre and truly achieving greatness.  And it’s not talent.

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An excerpt (paraphrased for space):

‘Look around you.  Look at your friends, your relatives, your coworkers, the people you meet when you shop or go to a party.  how do they spend their days?  Most of them work.  They all do many other things as well but how well do they do what they do?  The most likely answer is that they do it fine.  The odds are that few if any people around you are truly great at what they do-awesomely, amazingly, world-class excellent.  Why?’

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There a few things this book suggests that I don’t agree with – like the fact that clinical psychologists have had a hard time defining what ‘talent’ is, therefore it must not exist.   In a recent conversation with my stage manager Tony Lepore (who happens to have a degree in Philosophy) we decided that talent is a combination of experience and intuition combined with one other element.

This element is something the book touches on that I actually agree with.  Deliberate practice.

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Whether you’re on stage or off, a job requires performance.  Great performance requires practice that is hard, and it hurts, but it works.  Deliberate practice.  When I toured with Tops In Blue we had to rehearse 18 hours a day for six weeks – through stressed fractures, minimal sleep and unbelievable stress – before we set foot on stage in front of an audience.  But the finished product was undeniable and continues to wow audiences worldwide.

The best and most visible example of deliberate practice is Cirque Du Soleil.  When I got selected as a performer with them in April (after a nine hour audition) I had a new appreciation for how to rehearse.  Then I was invited to watch a rehearsal for KA at the MGM Grand and the precision and intensity of their rehearsal knocked me off my feet.

The result of their deliberate practice?  The most successful live entertainment company on the planet.

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Can rehearsal alone replace talent?  Is there a way to achieve greatness through repetition or are you born with an innate ability to do certain things better than most?

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Comment below and tell me what you think.

Kahlil (at) gigsmacked (dot) com