The Making of an Expert

From time to time on this blog I have written about the need for professionals to commit themselves to mastery, as a way of expressing a love for what one does, and as a way of becoming very, very skilled.

Then, along comes an excellent article in Harvard Business Review that makes the case that research is showing that an expert is made, and not born, even in the case of a Mozart or a Jordan.

The article is well worth reading, and gives hope to those of us who remember the old power were taught as kids:

The heights of great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight
But they, while their companions slept
Were toiling upwards through the night.

-- Winston Churchill

I strongly recommend the article -- available for about US$4 from the Harvard Business Review site.

It's message is important, and it is urgent, as it counters the dis-empowering thinking that what you are born with is the absolute and essential ingredient to any kind of success.