Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle, (10) Tip #10, Notes

Post date: Oct 11, 2018 12:13:54 PM

Little Book of Talent by Daniel Coyle

TIP #10 HONOR THE HARD SKILLS

Most talents are not exclusively hard skills or soft skills, but rather a combination of the two. Prioritize the hard skills because in the long run they’re more important to your talent. “Technique is everything,” says tennis coach, Larisa Preobrazhenskaya. “If you begin playing without technique it is big mistake.” You might be surprised to learn that many top performers place great importance on practicing the same skills they practiced as beginners. Resist the temptation of complexity and work on the task of honing and maintaining hard skills, because those form—quite literally—the foundation of everything else. One way to keep this idea in mind is to picture talent as a big oak tree—a massive, thick trunk of hard skills with a towering canopy of flexible soft skills up above. First build the trunk. Then work on the branches.