Coco Gauff’s Success Is Surprising. Or Is It?

Fifteen-year-old Cori “Coco” Gauff became the talk of Wimbledon.

After beginning the tournament ranked No. 313 in the world, Gauff quickly drew the world’s attention with her extraordinary play. In her first qualifying match, she beat No. 1 seed Aliona Bolsova from Spain. Gauff then became the youngest tennis player in 38 years to win in the main draw in Wimbledon. She triumphed over Venus Williams in Round 1, Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova in Round 2, and Slovenia’s Polona Hercog in Round 3. Gauff lost to No. 7 ranked Simona Halep from Romania in the Round of 16.

Although these results from such a young player seem surprising, Gauff’s journey follows a familiar pattern. It’s the same pattern found in all people we put on a talent pedestal, including Wolfgang Mozart, Albert Einstein, and Michael Jordan. Rather than freaks of nature who won the genetic lottery, these are ordinary people who became extraordinarily talented by devoting themselves to their development.

We often associate the word talent with natural ability, meaning that talent is innate, something we are born with, and represents things we can do that are otherwise unexplainable. But the thoughts, feelings, and actions comprising talent are developed through five key factors: mindset, myelin, mastery, motivation, and mentorship.

Mindset, championed by Stanford professor Carol Dweck, is a psychological concept for what we believe about ourselves. It comes down to whether we think our talent is fixed or whether we believe our ability can change in meaningful ways. What we accept about ourselves matters more than we realize, and it certainly matters in talent development. Rather than waiting to see if she was born with tennis genes, Gauff devoted herself to building her expertise in tennis at a young age. And that young age matters especially for her accumulation of myelin.

Myelin concerns brain development. Whether the talent is in music, physics, or tennis, talent is located in the head. Myelin is insulation that forms around neural “wires” in the brain. When we think, feel, or do, we send electrical signals through these neural wires. The more those signals fire, the more myelin forms around them. The more myelin we have around particular neural circuits, the faster, stronger, and better those signals become. The brain controls the body, and there is no such thing as muscle memory. Muscle memory is a term we use that actually refers to myelin. Impressive thoughts, feelings, or actions come from the accumulation of myelin. Myelin is talent, biologically speaking.

When we learn, our neurons connect, forming synapses. The number of synapses in our brains doubles during two periods of life, from ages 2-7 and 12-17. Around ages eight and eighteen, our synapses return to their normal number. We can always learn, but what we learn during these two critical periods has exponential outcomes on our brain development and resulting talent. Gauff started playing sports as a young child, devoted herself to tennis when she was seven years old, and competed in her first national tournament at age eight. By the time she was twelve years old, tennis was a full-time commitment. Gauff’s parents provided her with the access, opportunities, and resources necessary for mastering tennis.

Mastery pertains to the scientific understanding of what it takes to become talented. Decades of research by scholars of various disciplines shows there is no escaping the crucial roles that both quantity and quality of practice play in talent development. Talented people practice more, and in more challenging ways, than we might imagine. No one skips over the thousands of hours of practice necessary to become talented, and those hours must be spent deliberately stretching one’s current abilities. Gauff was born in Atlanta, but her family soon moved to Florida to give her the best tennis opportunities possible. She switched to online schooling in the third grade to focus on tennis. When Gauff was only ten years old, she went to train at the prestigious Mouratoglou Academy in Paris. Devoting herself to tennis in such a fashion requires not only great resources but also a tremendous amount of motivation.

Motivation is the fuel for mastery. The better someone is at a craft, the harder it is to make continual improvements, and the easier it is to decline. Sustaining the quantity and quality of practice necessary is not for the faint of heart. It is easy to settle without ever becoming great. Only the most motivated individuals push themselves to overcome talent plateaus and avoid becoming complacent with their current level of acceptable talent. As bestselling business writer Jim Collins once quipped, “Good is the enemy of great.” Before the world came to know Gauff, she spent thousands of hours preparing for and playing in tournaments unheard of by the general public. And along the way she was mentored by parents, peers, and professionals.

Mentorship, the fifth key, highlights something underappreciated in the development of talent: great teaching. Opportunity and access are especially critical for mentorship. The cliché is appropriate: it takes a village to raise a (talented) child. Behind every talented person are the great teachers who formed them. In all those tournaments, Gauff sought to play against the best, and those peers made her better. She frequently mentions her parents, and especially her father, when discussing her journey and accomplishments. Gauff is coached by the same person who serves as Serena Williams’ full-time coach, a relationship that began when her father took her to Paris. Gauff also shares a manager with Roger Federer.

Mindset. Myelin. Mastery. Motivation. Mentorship. Talent comes from these five factors.

There is no such thing as innate talent. Rather, talent is cultivated, developed, and learned.

Humans are the only species concerned with improving ourselves. No other species cares about getting better. Humans are also the only ones whose brains go through significant formation and development after birth. All other animals are born with their brains mostly formed. The brain cannot do what the brain has not learned. Humans are not born with talent, but they are born to develop talent. How far people go in developing their talent results from resources available and the choices they make regarding these five factors.

We should celebrate and be inspired by Coco Gauff not because she was born with special abilities, but because she wasn’t.