Think You Can Be Anything You Want to Be? Science Says No–Unless You Want to Be an Entrepreneur

My best friend growing up rolled a 160 the first time we went bowling. He had never hit a tennis ball, but on a whim he borrowed a kid’s racket, entered a youth tournament, and won. He went on to be all-state in baseball and basketball, and played minor league ball until a shoulder injury ended his career.

I worked hard to be as good. Way harder than he did; sure, he played, but he never practiced. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I never came anywhere close to his level in any athletic or physical pursuit. 

I realized early on that people who said “You can be anything you want to be” didn’t know what they were talking about. I might be able to be a number of things, but I was never going to be Matt.

Turns out science agrees. According to 2016 research published in Association for Psychological Science, in sports, practice accounts for less than 20 percent of the performance difference between amateurs — and only 1 percent of the performance difference between professionals.

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