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For virtually every company, the scarce resource today is human ability. That’s why companies are under unprecedented pressure to make sure that every employee is as highly developed as possible…

[Talent]… is a natural ability to do something better than most people can do it… And it is innate; you’re born with it, and if you’re not born with it, you can’t acquire it.

…research doesn’t support the view that extraordinary natural general abilities… are necessary for high achievement.

…in a wide range of fields… the connection between general intelligence and specific ability is weak and in some cases apparently nonexistent.

Deliberate practice works by helping us acquire the specific abilities we need to excel in a given field.

Constantly trying to extend one’s abilities in a field requires amassing additional knowledge, and staying at it for years develops the critical connections that organize all that knowledge and make it useful.

The brain’s ability to change is greatest in youth, but it doesn’t end there.

There is in fact a path leading from the state of our own abilities to that of the greats. The path is extremely long and demanding, and only a few will follow it all the way to its end.

The best performers go into their work with a powerful belief in what researchers call their self-efficacy – their ability to perform. They also believe strongly that all their work will pay off for them.

…the economy is increasingly based not on financial capital but on human capital, and how the abilities of the people in an organization… determine an enterprise’s success or failure.