How to bring up a superstar

Great talent has always been a mystery. Where does it come from? How does it grow? Recently, educational researcher at the University of Chicago B.Bloom, completed a five-year study of 120 superstars – Olympic champions, tennis players, concert pianists, sculptors, world-class mathematicians and scientists. Psychologists found out that superstars aren’t simply born – they are brought up that way. Their talents may differ, but their childhood experiences are similar.

Bloom says that the potential talent is more common than we think. The majority of children, if they are given the right conditions may learn anything. “Human potential,” he says, “is greater than we can measure in IQ or aptitude tests.” To find more about “the right conditions”, they chose individuals who were still young, mostly under 35, who had parents and teachers still living and able to tell their part of the story.

The influence of home on the superstar process is really big, but parents usually didn’t have a special plan – they did what they thought was good for children. One mother says how she left her baby’s pram by the tennis courts, while she and her husband played. “The ping of the tennis balls may be the first sound my daughter remembers hearing,” she laughs. He daughter grew up to be a tennis star.

Another mother recalls family trips to art museums. The son of the art lovers grew up to be a famous sculptor.

Bloom discovered that although those children showed their gifts at an early age, they were not considered prodigies. What those children did have beyond the basic physical and mental abilities, were caring parents. The earliest signs of a talent were quickly noticed and encouraged. In such small ways something extraordinary may begin. Parents praise or ignore an activity, and children respond.

A swimmer recalls that, as a little boy, he often watched his father doing carpentry. If a piece wasn’t done just right, his father would start all over again. The boy never forgot. Ten years later, in a room filled with silver trophy cups and Olympic medals, he told an interviewer, “My father taught me that if a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

The success didn’t come overnight. All of the superstars went through the same three stages. Stage one is a time of playfulness, of “falling in love” with a chosen activity. Next stage is the stage of technique. Then comes the stage of “making it your own”, when a personal style is developed.

The parents tried to give their children experiences that seemed right at each stage. To encourage the first flash of talent, the children were given lessons by a teacher who was “good to children”, not necessarily the best pianist or tennis player, but someone warm, quick to give praise. At the second stage the teacher was more demanding, he kept students working at a piece of music or a swimming stroke until it was right. The final teacher was master and model – an outstanding trainer of outstanding talents.

At every step of this process, the parents managed to find time, energy and money for the necessary lessons and equipment. Like most children, these young stars had to be reminded to practise. But a parent always sat with them. They cheered their children when they won and comforted them when they lost.

There is a talent hiding in almost every child, according to Bloom, and parents can develop it. And even if a child will not become a superstar, he will remain a lifelong lover of sport, music or intellectual activity. Is it worth time and energy?