Crush Your Competition – the Superstar Effect

The best way to win? Be better. How much better?
Soul crushingly better.
Sound cruel?
The Weekend Journal shared a great piece about the Superstar effect – how some stars are so much better than everyone else in the field that they literally crush their competition before the game/match/negotiation begins.
Boris Spassky, Bobby Fishcher’s rival sums it up:
When you [...]

Super Stars Mini-mite Hockey

If you haven’t seen the latest in mini-mite super stars, check out this video of a 9 year old. Now this trick is a learned trick and wouldn’t fly in the NHL (puck must be moving forward at all times – this one doesn’t), but come on, it’s pretty cool to watch.
Fair warning, this video [...]

What is Talent?

Talent is one of those things we talk about all the time, but very rarely define. How often do you refer to someone doing something incredible: Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Usain Bolt as a Natural Talent?
Since that often feels a bit like a cop-out, let’s dive in to the science of [...]

Winning with Nuclear Fusion, a New Metaphor

Winning with Nuclear Fusion
Thursday evening I ended up in a conversation about nuclear fusion, not a subject I know much about, but I have a vague understanding . . . that got me thinking about what it takes to launch a business, or learn a new skill since both of those activities require an extraordinary [...]

Record Breaking Second Place

Earlier this week a reader reminded me of another example of a record breaking performance that comes in second place.
Sammy Sosa vs Roger Maris . . .
. . . vs Mark McGwire
In 1998, Sammy Sosa soundly beat Roger Maris’ 1961 home run record of 61 in one season. Sammy was the first player to [...]

Running Mastery: Sports Stat of the Week

So you probably thought you’d hear about hockey this week given that preseason begins . . . now, but instead how about a diversion to running.
In tandem with my research on the non verbal, environmental cues that foster the growth of super stars I get to look at super stars themselves. It’s really amazing to [...]

Never Too Old to be a Super Star

Think you have mastered all that you are able to master and that life and learning are about to pass you by? Has your dream of challenging Eric Clapton to a little strumming vanished? Think that you are too old to pick up the violin?
There is hope!
Many adults consider themselves over-the-hill and not likely to [...]

Supers Stars have higher IQs?

Most of what we know about intelligence is wrong. Let me start with an example.
Who has the higher IQ?
The Chess Master or the steel worker?
No peeking! Make a choice.
If you said the Chess Master you would be in good company. Most people say the Chess Master. Their reasoning is that the average IQ for the [...]

Peak Years and Influence

In an effort to determine the validity of my hypothesis about peak years I’ve scanned through high school data as I get my hands on it . . . turns out it is not so straight forward to get high schools to share their information. It has been even more difficult to get organizations like [...]

Sports Stat of the Week: HPHS Football Leadership

Preseason is in full swing.With that in mind a little stat on football leadership from a local high school.
In researching the athletic prowess and at Highland Park High School for comparison with its academic (Nobels and Rhodes) prowess, I stumbled across this little tidbit . . . of our big stars in the NFL, all [...]

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