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Expanding on a landmark cover story in Fortune, a top journalist debunks the myths of exceptional performance.One of the most popular Fortune articles in many years was a cover story called “What It Takes to Be Great.” Geoff Colvin offered new evidence that top performers in any field–from Tiger Woods and Winston Churchill to Warren Buffett and Jack Welch–are not determined by their inborn talents. Greatness doesn’t come from DNA but from practice and perseverance honed over decades.And not just plain old hard work, like your grandmother might have advocated, but a very specific kind of work. The key is how you practice, how you analyze the results of your progress and learn from your mistakes, that enables you to achieve greatness.Now Colvin has expanded his article with much more scientific background and real-world examples. He shows that the skills of business—negotiating deals, evaluating financial statements, and all the rest—obey the principles that lead to greatness, so that anyone can get better at them with the right kind of effort. Even the hardest decisions and interactions can be systematically improved.This new mind-set, combined with Colvin’s practical advice, will change the way you think about your job and career—and will inspire you to achieve more in all you do.What readers says:Telling examination of the power of practicingAuthor Geoff Colvin rejects the popular notion that the genius of a Tiger Woods, a Mozart or a Warren Buffett is inborn uniquely to only a few individuals. He cites research that refutes the value of precocious, innate ability and he provides numerous examples of the intensely hard work that high achievement demands. Best performers’ intense, “deliberate practice” is based on clear objectives, thorough analysis, sharp feedback, and layered, systematic work. getAbstract finds that Colvin makes his case clearly and convincingly. He shows readers how to use hard work and deliberate practice to improve their creative achievements, their work and their companies. The author’s argument about the true nature of genius is very engaging, but, in the end, he makes it clear that the requirements of extraordinary achievement remain so stringent that society, after all, turns out to have very few geniuses. Colvin admits that the severe demands of true, deliberate practice are so painful that only a few people master it, but he also argues that you can benefit from understanding the nature of great performance. Perhaps, he says, the real gift of genius is the capacity for determined practice. You can improve your ability to create and innovate once you accept that even talent isn’t a free ticket to great performance. It takes work.  – Rolf Dobelli  “getAbstract.com” – Amazon.com -Talent is Overrated is an excellent book. It complements other wonderful books such as Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, and similar works that explicate to varying degrees the work of Dr. K. Anders Ericsson and other researchers on the topic of talent and accomplishment.The most comically laugh-out-loud crackpot reviews for any product sold by Amazon.com that I have ever read were the negative reviews for this product, Talent is Overrated. For the most part, the negative reviewers say the equivalent of this: “Don’t bother taking your date to a dinner and movie, instead take out your laptop and watch a funny scene on YouTube while you both eat chips from a bag. It’s the same thing as dinner and a movie.” They may believe that but most of the world will say, “It’s not.”Geoffrey Colvin shows that talent helps, but only long hours of hard work for many years makes you Ted Williams, Pete Maravich, Walt Disney, or Bill Walsh. Read this book. Don’t go only for a short version. It’s incomplete in comparison. It’s like reviewing the feature film Titanic by saying, “The boat sunk,” and then insisting to your audience that they now know the story and need not bother watching the movie.If you want to read a good, thought-provoking, and entertaining book about achieving success in business, sports, or most any competitive domain, then read Talent is Overrated. It’s dinner and a movie that makes date memories that will stay with you. It’s good stuff. Thank you Geoff Colvin. Bravo.Robert BeattieNew York Times bestselling author About the AuthorGeoff Colvin, Fortune’s senior editor at large, is one of America’s most respected business journalists. He lectures widely and is the regular lead moderator for the Fortune Global Business Forum. A frequent guest on CNBC’s Squawk Box and other TV programs, Colvin appears daily on the CBS Radio Network, reaching seven million listeners each week. He also co-anchored Wall Street Week with Fortune on PBS for three years.