Geoff Colvn insists you are naturally good at nothing [Archive.org URL]

You are not talented at your job. You never will be. But wait: That’s the good news—because talent, argues Geoff Colvin, doesn’t exist in the first place—at least not in the traditional sense of the word. It is not, he points out, an innate ability. The sooner you realize that Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and you were not meant to be great business leaders, the likelier you are to become a great business leader. Too many of us have been deluded by the promise that talent leads to great success, says Colvin, Fortune’s senior editor at large and former co-anchor of PBS’s Wall Street Week. In his new book, he debunks conventional thinking and explains why Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else (Portfolio). Colvin, 55, spoke from his New York office about the meaning—and meaninglessness—of talent and why you probably won’t get anywhere at work or in life until you acknowledge your lack of it.

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