Sarah Chang performing outdoor.jpg Sarah Chang performing outdoor at the Festival I suoni delle Dolomiti in 2005 (Morningfrost/ Wikipedia)
When you hear the word "genius," you might think of luminaries like Einstein, Mozart, or Da Vinci. But how a person who achieves extraordinary success gets that way is the subject of debate. Were they born that way? Or does it come from sheer tenacity?
MorePractice, practice, practice. In this second installment of our weeklong series on genius, we talk to violinist Sarah Chang who was recognized as a child prodigy, recording her first album at age ten. Together with author David Shenk, the violinist shares some simple ingredients to astonishing success.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with The BBC World Service, New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
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Comments [3]
As I discuss in the book, the 10,000 hours research is sound, but it's been cartooned in the media It's not just the time but the particular type of practice that's important. Just working at what you're already good at isn't enough -- you need to develop a special relationship with failure, working on the stuff you can't quite do, always pushing yourself just beyond your abilities.
Thank you for this segment.
My 11th-grade, 16 year old, daughter is a soprano, laser-focused on a career in opera. Your story is great encouragement for a strikingly similar focus, passion and discipline at an early age. It served as validation that there are others who have proven that the unconventional and unpopular path can, indeed, be the rewarding one.
"Practice, practice, practice" - This reminds me of Malcom Gladwell's Outliers, in which he argues that mastery of anything - whether it's the Beatles in music or Bill Gates in the computer world - takes 10,000 hours of practice. The only requirement for the individual is to find the money to create time for practice, have a strong desire to commit to the work, and practice, practice, practice until they achieve success.
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