I don't think anyone who has ever truly excelled at something would attribute all the success solely to practice, but I don't think anyone who truly excelled di

I don't think anyone who has ever truly excelled at something would attribute all the success solely to practice, but I don't think anyone who truly excelled did so by not practicing either. Sports are a great example of this. A great athlete is often... One part genetic gifts - if you are tall basketball might work well for you, if you're short maybe a horse jockey would be a more sensible sport. One part intuitive skill or affinity - some people naturally are good at throwing a baseball fast or really love to kick a soccer ball. Some people just aren't. One part opportunity - I've never had an opportunity to do curling, but I've played football and basketball. If my parents were world class martial artists, I'd probably be pretty good at martial arts. One part practice and experience - a good amount of skill acquisition can only come from doing and refining that skill. You can read about how to run long distances, but at some point you just have to put in the miles. The more you do, the more you learn. One part obsession - to be the best in the world, you have to have a ridiculous amount of determination. Most people don't have that for most of what they do. The ones who reach the highest levels tend to go beyond determination to obsession. Read about how Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan practiced and prepared and you realize that they weren't just doing "deliberate practice", they were obsessed with greatness and that obsession drove them beyond what anyone else was willing to do. One part luck - even if everything else aligns you can get hurt, something else could sideline your career, you might fight a drug addiction or have family problems or an illness. Also, being lucky enough to get certain opportunities come your way at the right time often plays a big factor. When you have all of those things come together you have something special. We can all recognize it simply because it's rare. When we try and reduce everything down to a simple idea like "deliberate practice" that might sell a lot of books, or make for interesting papers, it really doesn't tell the whole story. I think the human mind wants to reduce complexity to simple things because it makes the story we tell ourselves about the world easier to understand, but it's the complexity that makes it all so fascinating in the first place.