Bounce is a book that focuses on hard work as the main attribute to achieving success, like Mindset by Carol Dweck, it uses the examples of famous sports people – these sports people are seen to be the most naturally gifted athletes in their field – Tiger woods, Williams sisters and other ‘naturally gifted’ people such as Mozart.

The book focuses mostly on the theory of unknown circumstance and the 10,000 hour theory. The 10,000 hour theory is an idea that it takes 10,000 hours to become elite at anything we do. The book looks at the myth of naturally talented vs hard work (10,000 hours). In the story of the ‘naturally gifted’ elite sports stars who achieved major success at the young age all have the same intrinsic motivation that made them practise from an early age.

One of the early theories from the book is that there is no such thing as a ‘child prodigy’. The author looks at unfair comparisons from young musicians who have ad 3,500 hours of practice by the age of 6 to those who have not and states that obviously with more practise one will have superior ability to the other. If you compare two people, regardless of age, who have had the same amount of practise then both will have a similar ability.

Does this mean anyone can become elite by spending the required time doing one thing? Not quite. To continually improve you must strive for improvement each time. An example of this can be made in terms of driving a car. Many people can drive a car and have been driving for more than 10,000 hours but are not at the elite level because they are not striving to improve. They are essentially on autopilot.

Syed also refers to the Iceberg illusion. Where people make judgements about a person’s abilities and talents but have only seen the final product and not the work that has been put in beforehand. This allows people to disconnect with failure by claiming they do not have the ‘natural gift’ to achieve such feats rather than admit to themselves they have not put in the required amount of work needed to reach that level.

This book, along with Mindset, has completely changed the way I see mistakes/setbacks and the elite sports people we admire so highly. This has made me reflect on my teaching practice and will highlight my own mistakes and/or setbacks on a regular basis and highlight the learning that has taken place because of these. I would like to make students aware that the person who is the ‘smartest’ in the class has actually just put more work in to studying than the ‘less smart’ people in the class. This will hopefully allow the students to do the same and realise that mistakes/setbacks are essential in personal growth which in turn will breed a culture of hard work and ultimately result in success for the students.

Joe McNee