High achievement and world-class greatness are a result of years of deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice:

1. Designed to improve performance.
2. Can be repeated a lot
3. Allows for continuously available feedback on results
4. Is highly demanding mentally
5. Isn’t much fun (in the general sense)

Success has little or nothing to do with IQ, inborn abilities, or memory.

Apply the following techniques in your life in order to be successful:

1. Know where you want to go
2. Practice directly
   1. Emulate a higher piece of work or emulate a higher person
   2. Study case methods
   3. Review basic skills and develop specific skills
3. Practice while you’re doing the work; before, during, and after work (much like what baseball players do – taking batting practice during the day)
4. Deepening your knowledge
   1. Enlarge your specific domain knowledge

How does this apply to an organization?

1. They stretch and grow employees (human capital)
2. Develops leaders within their jobs
3. Understand critical roles and their feedback
4. Identify promising performers early
5. People development works best through inspiration, not authority
6. Invest time, money, and energy into people
7. Make leadership development part of the culture

Great performance doesn’t come from superior general abilities, it comes from specific skills that have been developed over time through diligent work.