Just because some people can do something with little or no training, it doesn't mean that others can't do it (and sometimes do it even better) with training.

Praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance.

Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.

Wow, that's a really good score. You must have worked really hard.

Choosing a partner is choosing a set of problems. There are no problem-free candidates.

I believe ability can get you to the top,” says coach John Wooden, “but it takes character to keep you there.… It’s so easy to … begin thinking you can just ‘turn it on’ automatically, without proper preparation. It takes real character to keep working as hard or even harder once you’re there. When you read about an athlete or team that wins over and over and over, remind yourself, ‘More than ability, they have character.'

More and more research is suggesting that, far from being simply encoded in the genes, much of personality is a flexible and dynamic thing that changes over the life span and is shaped by experience.