Without Perseverance, There Is No Talent!!

What makes Michael Jordan the legendary basketball player of all time? What makes Tiger Woods the world's greatest golfer? What made Berkshire chairman Warren Buffett the world's most sought after investor? Many of us think the answer is obvious, that each was a born genius in that field.

Well, folks, there is no doubt that they are the greatest in the field now, but where were they when they are much younger? Did you know that Michael Jordan was dropped from the varsity team? Here is a short extract from Jordan's biography.

Jordan used to play basketball for Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. Ironically, Jordan was cut from the varsity team as a sophomore. Instead of giving it up after failing to make the team, Jordan used it to spur himself to greater achievements, practicing hour after hour on the court. "Whenever I was working out and got tired and figured I ought to stop, I'd close my eyes and see that list in the locker room without my name on it," Jordan said, "and that usually got me going again." He eventually made the team and led it to the state championship.

The same story applies to Woods. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Even after this achievement, Woods has never stopped to trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to practice, and even remade his swing twice for the sake to get even better.

What about Buffett then? Well, folks, he is not a born astute investor, but is rather famed for the hours he spends studying financial statements and even talking to the management of potential investment target. How many of us even bother to find out who is the CEO of a company, before we buy shares of that company? This is what sets us apart from Buffett.

Before you simply rush into picking up your iron and throwing hours into practice, you have to understand the importance in deliberate practice. Simply hitting buckets of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers (including myself) do not improve. Hitting an eight iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

Sceptics will ask "What if I don't become that great, after putting in hours?" or "Why would I want to put in hard work, when I am not paid accordingly?". For this, I signed off with below quotation.

Quote from John Ruskin
The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.