*Bounce*

Matthew Syed's Bounce tries to uncover how exceptional people got that way.  It starts out promising, but quickly fizzles out.

It offers a very tight review of current studies that demonstrate that hard work matters more than talent.  You can skip Talent Is Overrated and just read the first couple chapters of Bounce.

But the hard work argument just opens another mystery: what compels people to work so hard that they rise above everyone else, even at great cost and pain to themselves?  The book never provides a meaningful answer.  A few studies show that the right kind of coaching words can make a difference, but that just scratches the surface.  I doubt Michael Jordan was lucky enough to only have positive, supportive coaches all his youth and career.

The rest of the book talks about other high performance issues, such as "choking" and how to avoid it.  Not uninteresting, but more like appendix material to the main storyline, which remains unresolved.