Why talent is overrated - Oct. 21, 2008
(Fortune Magazine) -- It is mid-1978, and we are inside the giant Procter & Gamble headquarters in Cincinnati, looking into a cubicle shared by a pair of 22-year-old men, fresh out of college. Their assignment is to sell Duncan Hines brownie mix, but they spend a lot of their time just rewriting memos. They are clearly smart - one has just graduated from Harvard, the other from Dartmouth - but that doesn't distinguish them from a slew of other new hires at P&G. What does distinguish them from many of the young go-getters the company takes on each year is that neither man is particularly filled with ambition. These two young men are of interest to us now for only one reason: They are Jeffrey Immelt and Steven Ballmer, who before age 50 would become CEOs of two of the world's most valuable corporations, General Electric (GE, Fortune 500) and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). The obvious question is how. If we're all wrong about high achievement, that's a big problem.
The Illusion of Understanding Success
0Share Synopsis Our tendency to rely on narratives to explain the world distorts our understanding of what it takes to be successful. In December of 1993, J.K. By 1995 she finished the first manuscript of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, a story about a young wizard she began writing years before. Rowling’s story, which includes financial and emotional shortcomings followed by success and popularity, is the rags to riches narrative in a nutshell. The reality of Rowling’s story, however, is just that: it’s a story. Yet, we humans, facing limits of knowledge, to paraphrase one author, resolve the myriad of unknown events that defined Rowling’s life before Harry Potter by squeezing them into crisp commoditized ideas and packaging them to fit a warming narrative. The same problem occurs in science. Unfortunately, Frodo’s triumph at Mount Doom is more real than natural selection to some. Tags: creativity, intelligence, philosophy, psychology, success
The Talent Code
Reducing academic pressure may help children succeed
Children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. "We focused on a widespread cultural belief that equates academic success with a high level of competence and failure with intellectual inferiority," said Frederique Autin, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Poitiers in Poitiers, France. "By being obsessed with success, students are afraid to fail, so they are reluctant to take difficult steps to master new material. The study, published online in APA's Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, could have important implications for teachers, parents and students, said Jean-Claude Croizet, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Poitiers who supervised the research based on Autin's doctoral dissertation.
Want to avoid being a draft bust? Heed the words of Rashaan Salaam | Shutdown Corner
It was all downhill for ex-Heisman winner Rashaam Salaam. (Getty Images) From Ryan Leaf to JaMarcus Russell and far beyond, the history of draft bustitude is a long and sad one. There isn't an NFL team, no matter how well-run, without its own selection that set the franchise back. The New England Patriots have Chad Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens tied their name to Kyle Boller, and the Pittsburgh Steelers probably don't have a huge historical archive regarding their decision to take nose tackle Gabe Rivera in 1983 when some kid quarterback from Pitt was looking pretty good just down the road ... Dan Marino was his name, we believe. Among its own draft mistakes, the Chicago Bears would certainly list running back Rashaan Salaam at or near the top. [NFL draft winners/losers: Washington Redskins qualify as both] "Work on your game. Salaam now lives in San Diego and helps run a camp to mentor kids. "My whole life, up until the Chicago Bears … everything was perfect.
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