Written for executives rather than researchers, and still the clearest popular account of what separates top performers.
Colvin, a business journalist, built this around a question his readers actually ask: whether the people at the top of a field were born different. His answer leans heavily on the deliberate-practice literature and on cases from business rather than sport or music, which makes it land better in a management audience than most of its competitors.
The evidence base has moved since 2008, and later meta-analyses are more cautious about how much practice explains. The chapters on how organizations can build practice into ordinary work have aged well.
The Times Take: The most persuasive version of this argument for a business reader — best read with the newer meta-analyses in hand.
Colvin, G. (2008). Talent is overrated: What really separates world-class performers from everybody else. Portfolio. Find it
