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Geoff Colvin

This tag is associated with 8 posts

What’s the Funniest Thing That’s Ever …

It never hurts to be able to laugh at yourself. It makes you attractive to those around you — even the ones who may be giving you a job.

Must-Read Books for Leaders

A coach just asked for recommendations on a book to help him mold his philosophy. What a great question! Here are three for sure: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell. Talent Is Overrated, Geoff Colvin The Talent Code, Daniel Coyle All three discuss the subject of human potential, and how anyone can pursue excellence and success. Another must […]

No Special Gift

Comedian Steve Martin was the subject of a recent biography on TV. In it, he says of himself, “I had no special gift. What I had was focus and a little bit of obsession. I thought, ‘There’s going to be a changing of the guard and someone new will come along. Why not me?’” No […]

A Key to Motivation

Few paragraphs could ever teach more about motivation than the following one, written by Geoff Colvin and appearing in the acknowledgments section of his book, “Talent is overrated.” This book would not have been written if my “Fortune” colleague Jerry Useem hadn’t walked into my office and and asked if I wanted to write something […]

Roger Federer’s Footwork

Many thanks to Jeff Beer for sending this New York Times item on Roger Federer’s footwork. My favorite part is the very beginning. It concerns Federer’s ability to PERCEIVE quickly. The narrator says Federer’s split step begins the moment he sees the opponent’s racquet come forward to hit the ball. This early recognition is a […]

It’s What You See

Back in my sports writing days, I always tried to sit next to one particular person in the pressbox because he seemed to see so much in the game. He was WATCHING the same thing the rest of us were, but he always SAW more. Listening to his insights, and hearing him pick apart the […]

What Does Babe Ruth Mean?

The author of “Talent Is Overrated — What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else” must consider the case of Babe Ruth. Ruth was the best baseball player of his era and perhaps of all time. He was not only a peerless batter, but a record-setting pitcher. The trouble for “Talent is Overrated” author Geoff […]

Life is a Skill Game

“Even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15% of one’s financial success is due one’s technical knowledge and about 85% is due to skill in human engineering, to personality and the ability to lead people.” — Dale Carnegie  How much of life is skill and how much is something else? It’s an important question […]