THE BIOLOGY OF SUCCESS
Getting
Psyched for
Success
Sure, hard work and innate talent are crucial
elements of human achievement—but some
of it comes down to mindset over matter
By Tom Fields-Meyer
T
he social psychologist anders ericsson is
fond of recounting a story about the great Italian
violinist Niccolò Paganini. The maestro was once
partway through a solo performance when one of
his strings suddenly broke. Unfazed, he simply kept playing,
but then another string snapped, and then a third, leaving him
with only a single violin string. Paganini not only continued
playing but carried off a virtuoso-level performance, even lim-
ited to a single string.
As it turned out, the violinist’s startling recovery wasn’t mi-
raculous or superhuman. Paganini had long prepared for just
such a moment. Not only had he put long hours into practic-
ing the instrument without all of its strings, but he had actu-
ally composed music specifically meant to be played on a vio-
lin with just one string. “Achievement takes preparation,” says
Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University
and the author of Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Ex-
pertise. “Once you understand what an individual actually did
in order to prepare for these kinds of events, then it becomes
more understandable.”
Then again, explaining what it takes to achieve success
isn’t always so simple. Psychologists have long struggled to
account for what enables some people to succeed while others
don’t—whether it’s at playing an instrument, passing a math
test or performing cancer surgery. What ingredients account
