Path to Excellence

World-class performers are often late bloomers

- Claire Cameron

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to become the best at something? The answer may not lie in early childhood excellence or in lifelong, laser-focused dedication.

Instead the path to becoming exceptional at a skill might involve a lot more meandering.

That's according to recent research published in Science that seeks to untangle what it takes to excel in different performance areas, from sports to chess to classical music. Somewhat counterintuitively, the study authors learned, people who showed the greatest promise in their discipline as children rarely went on to reach the pinnacle of their field as adults.

The findings blow up the "10,000hour rule," the idea that if someone spends 10,000 hours deliberately practicing a skill, they will master it, says Purdue University psychologist Brooke Macnamara, who co-authored the analysis. The rule, which was popularized in Malcolm Gladwell's 2008 book Outliers, is based on a 1993 study of topperforming violin students. These students had each accumulated an average of 10,000 hours of practice by age 20.

Yet they were not world-class performers, Macnamara points out.