"The sine qua non of truly exceptional achievement, or greatness, in any field is an extraordinary level of ambition and zeal in one's endeavors. It is the opposite of a lackadaisical attitude toward one's work. Zeal is probably what makes possible the enormous amount of diligent practice in one's pursuit without which a world-class level of performance is simply not possible. The extraordinary level of virtuoso skill seen in great musicians, Olympic athletes, world-class mathematicians, chess champions, and top-level surgeons, for example, owes at least as much to their many years of disciplined study and practice as to their inborn talent. Their talent, in fact, might actually consist in large part of their unusual drive and capacity for assiduous persistence in developing their specialized skills over many years. Ten years seems to be about the minimum amount of 'practice time' needed for attaining a high level of expertise in one's vocation, even for famous geniuses. Ambition seems to consist of a high level of goal-directed drive, persisting in the face of difficulties and obstacles. It is possessed to an extraordinary degree by the world's greatest achievers. The personal sources of the immense ambition that overrides all obstacles are scarcely understood and, as yet, have not been very much studied by psychologists. Dean Simonton, the leading contemporary researcher on the origins of high-level achievement, has remarked that the source of the exceptional level of drive and ambition evinced by the most illustrious achievers in history is still one of the great mysteries of psychology. Psychologists often speak of 'achievement motivation', but this simply names the phenomenon without explaining it. The topic is crying out for scientific research."
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen