Ignition of Motivation in developing talent.

I am listening to the audio-book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.

The first part of the book was about developing "Deep Practice" which is not that different (actually a lot like) "Deliberate Practice" from Talent is Over-rated, by Geoff Colvin

The bit I am on now (Part 2) deals with the source of motivation that allows world-class performers to practice so much and get so much out of it. Specifically, the section I listened to last night was about the examples set by other people on the horizon. It is a really interesting section.

This morning this story was circulating on my alumni list about an above-knee double amputee who studied computer science and has now joined Google, Bangalore. If you ever studied engineering in India, you'd appreciate this story better. But for the purposes of comparison with the United States, it is like an illegal immigrant farm hand's child going to MIT.

What is most interesting about this story (at least for me this morning, given where I am in the Talent Code) is the number of specific individuals that Naga Naresh cites as sources of inspiration or help.