With Eileen Gu’s exploits (and killer press interviews) at the Winter Olympics, and Novak Djokovic’s march into the final of this year’s Australian Open still fresh in the memory, a recent article by Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh led me to re-consider to what extent talent is the key determiner of success in sport or business.
Ganesh writes (and I paraphrase slightly): “When it comes to success, ‘mentality’ gets too much attention and talent too little, for its talent that decides these things. The idea that Arsenal [the football team Ganesh supports] have had enough talent to win the Premier League in the past, but failed due to weak character, is hugely popular nonsense. The truth is that the squad was never quite complete and now, after vast investment, it probably is.”
There are several reasons to side with him:
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To excel in the field of sport individually, be it as an Olympic athlete, elite tennis player or Premier League footballer, you need to possess extremely rare levels of talent, almost certainly genetically endowed.
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Ganesh’s thesis was resoundingly borne out two weeks ago by rival football club Manchester United, whose sole goal of a game against Everton came from three new signings with a combined transfer cost of over £200m ($270m). Man U won 1-0 and are now third in the league.
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No amount of mindset or mentality, enthusiasm or practice will propel the sporting enthusiast onto their national team, or even let them turn professional.
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In the field of business, the myth of the talented genius persists, no doubt because such examples are so rare. Having read a number of biographies on Steve Jobs, I’d argue it was largely his talent and vision that prevented Apple from going bust, and started it on its journey to where it is today.
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Finally, in my experience there are very few C-suite leaders who don’t possess higher-than-average levels of smarts, commercial judgement and social skills.
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And yet, in both sport and business, I can’t help feeling that there are so many factors
other than talent that contribute to success:
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Coaching: If talent was all that mattered, how do we explain it when a new coach or CEO comes on board and quickly improves results with the same individual or team? Or the fact that most senior leaders willingly invest time, money and effort into being coached themselves?
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The Right Combinations: I’d also argue that success comes from having the right combinations of players or executives working alongside each other: certain combinations drive performance; others undermine it.
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Collaboration: In team sports, it’s often the teams who don’t just comprise the most talented, but also the most selfless, ‘team players’ that are consistently successful. The same is true in business: most organisations actively staff themselves with collaborators rather than ‘brilliant jerks’.
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The Right Fundamentals: I’ve always been struck by how much Novak Djokovic concentrates on getting the fundamentals right, whether it be the right diet, outstanding physical conditioning, or playing fewer tournaments so as to prioritise the Grand Slams.
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Practice: Former England football captain David Beckham famously practised free kicks into the evening, long after his teammates had left. Repetition builds muscle memory, and it was never talent alone that made him so successful.
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Mindset: Djokovic has developed the most incredible self-belief, and an amazing ability to win ‘pressure points’. Indeed, some have said it was precisely because Novak wasn’t as naturally talented as Roger Federer, that to beat him his only option was to develop a superior mindset.
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Hunger: There are countless athletes and executives with exceptional talent; those who excel tend to have higher levels of hunger and desire.
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Determination: Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours to develop mastery in any discipline. Putting in this number of hours takes determination, discipline and the ability to not get bored!
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Resilience: In sport and business alike there are always setbacks. It’s the ability to bounce back from them that often determines how successful people end up being.
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Luck: Particularly in business, being at the right place at the right time (including, but not limited to, one’s family and social environment) often contributes to career success far more than people would care to admit.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, it’s beyond doubt that extraordinary levels of talent are needed to reach the highest levels of sport or business, and a critical mass of it is required in team sports to defeat opponents.
“You can achieve anything if you work hard enough” is something people say, but in reality there are limits: competition abounds, we can only make the best of the gifts we’re born with, and luck (good and bad) plays its part.
Having interviewed tens of thousands of candidates over the past 25 years, I’ve seen a very strong correlation between talent and success, but it’s not a given. I’ve been surprised by some supremely gifted executives whose career achievements fell short of their potential, and by others who seemingly had less going for them, but who went on to outperform their more ‘talented’ peers.
In conclusion, I believe we can all make the most of our talents, and maximise our chances of success, by having the right coaches, collaborating with like-minded teammates, adopting the right fundamentals, practising a lot, and having the right mindset, hunger, determination and resilience to withstand what life throws at us along the way.