Elite Performance - similarities between Usain Bolt and Steve Jobs

The past week has been extremely enlightening for me with the unity that the Olympics has bought to London and my work at The Prince's Trust. Watching athletes who train for four years for that one moment of glory and working with individuals whose purpose in life greater than themselves. The similarities were that they are doing what they love and happen to be very good at it. This made me think how I have progressed as a trader and hence what creates a great trader. I have been asked this questions many times and the same people keep on asking me the same question looking for a specific set of technical answers. Of course, we have to know about the technicals (price action, risk management, etc) but that is only 10% of developing as a trader. The path to elite performance is the same in any field no matter what the medium or goal is but the questions is how to get to that point? Is it an innate ability? Is it a developed skill?

Some interesting psychology work of Sandra Scarr, was reviewed by Brett Steenbarger, a trader and clinical psychologist. What she found was that genotypes shape phenotypes; people with inborn characteristics seek out particular kinds of environments which cultivate those characteristics. Thus, brighter people seek out brighter peers to stimulate their intellectual growth. The less brighter people never seek out such environments so tend to lag behind their more gifted peers. 

As with traders, we see young traders who pick up markets and technical information a little quicker. These individuals tend to get snapped up by asset management companies and big banks and are positioned in a more stimulating environment and successful trading environments. I have three friends who are several years younger than me all working as traders for big institutions, trading capital and making bets that will make most people burn out in a day. The average retail trader, most of the time never experiences a stimulating environment and progress at a modest pace. 

Talent and environment are not enough: 'It is how your talent or skill set brings you to superior environments that stimulates and motivates you to create exponential learning curves and elite performances'. 

For example, Usain Bolt. There is a huge debate on the different genes that African-Americans/Afro-Caribbeans have compared to Caucasians. After all, out of the 80 individuals in the whole world who can run 100m under 10seconds, only one is white. However, Michael Johnson, made an important point.....in most of the countries where these fast sprinters come from, sprinting is the national sport. Usain Bolt and such likes are role models, it's the same how young kids in the UK aspire to become a Premiership footballer. In some of those countries sprinting is just as big as rugby or football here in the UK. It's the environment that helps bring out the talent. 

For those of you have read Steve Jobs Autobiography, he talks about something based on the same principles. He was known for being very aggressive with his employees and would sack people with no emotion or sympathy. However, what was his reasoning for this? He believed that A team people only want to work with A team players as they stimulate each other's intellectual growth. As soon as a B team player comes in, they bring the group down to B level standard and so on. This obviously proved to work very well as Apple are currently one the most innovative companies in recent years. 

So how does this relate to my own personal trading? Well, my own trading dramatically improved once I found an environment of like minded people that bought out the best in me. I was stimulated to be the best trader I could be and the motivations were all similar. This is why it is so important to find someone who motivates and challenges you, be it a mentor, a partner or trading friend. How has The Prince's Trust helped me? Well, everyone is there for the same specific person....to give back. Sitting in a room training with CEO's and multi-millionaire business owners was inspirational in itself but it was what the group bought out of each other that was the most interesting aspect. Most people came out feeling more satisfied and inspired than they did walking in at the start of the day. 

Sometimes, we do not have the ability to find such like minded people so I believe it is important to follow this mantra, which I do on a daily basis: 'Be a better person before you go to sleep every night'. Whether you've learnt something to make you a better trader, whether you've spent time with your kids and left a long lasting impression with them or whether you've finally finished that chapter of that book your reading.....have a sense of achievement every day. Just like trading, little and often helps build an account.....little and often makes us a better person.