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Transcript of the video:

Now, here is my theory of achievement all on one slide. And it actually recalls Will Smith’s very, very wise words about talent versus effort. I think that both matter. I would love to stand up here and tell you that you’re all equally talented, and that your children are all geniuses. But in fact it’s not true. Children sometimes learn more quickly than others, and in particular, they may have more talent for one thing: basketball, math, versus another.

So I define talent quite narrowly as the rate at which you can accumulate skill when you try. A very talented person will accumulate skill faster than a less talented one but as Will Smith and Francis Galton and Catherine Cox point out, effort matters, too. And they are truly separable.

In my research, when I measure things like IQ a proxy for intellectual talent, I find that the correlation, the relationship between that measure and grit is zero and sometimes negative, suggesting that in that sample those who are more able, who learn more quickly and easily, may be less hard working, less determined, less committed over the long term than others. Talent times effort yields human skill.

Now, I say effort counts a second time because once you know how to write a paper or teach a class or act in a movie, you have a skill but you have to apply that skill. And that takes effort, too. So in the sense that skill times effort yields actually tangible human achievements, talent counts but effort counts twice.

Here’s the modern science of high achievement, in particular the work of cognitive psychologist Anders Ericsson, a very close friend and colleague, and the scientist who made the 10,000 hour rule as popular and as commonplace as it is today.

Now, what Anders Ericsson would tell you about the experts that he studies, the field prize winning mathematicians, the prima ballerinas, the Olympic swimmers, is that whether that skill is physical or mental there is the same learning curve. I’ve got two girls at home.

I’m guessing some of you are parents. We like to talk to our kids about the learning curve. This is the learning curve. It is actually sinusoidal. It turns out people in any domain start at the bottom. You can look at a very good athlete like Steph Curry and say, ‘oh, he was born to play basketball.’ But you cannot say that he was born knowing how to play basketball. Human skills are acquired.   

[00:03:02]

And here’s the thing about the 10,000 hour rule, and because you showed up tonight on a beautiful day to be inside and not outside, you get to know the secret behind the 10,000 hour rule. It’s not the number of hours that’s magical. There are plenty of mediocre performers who have spent 20,000 hours doing their thing. It’s the quality not the quantity of practice that distinguishes true world-class performers from everyone else.

[3.41 minutes]

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This video was filmed as part of the Rotman Behavioural Insights Speaker Series on May 11, 2017.