<p>I just read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, which is about this very topic. He has an interesting take on geniuses and success – that it is aptitude (something innate) combined with opportunity (this is where luck comes in), and practice (the 10,000 hours) that produces the kind of meteoric success we’ve all heard about (he mentions Mozart, the Beatles, Bill Gates, Bill Joy, among others). What I found particularly interesting is how important opportunity and practice are – innate talent alone will get you nowhere. He quotes many interesting studies (including the one quoted by the Times, I think) to prove his point – meaning, it’s not all anecdotal (like most of the comments here!). I found myself being mostly convinced, but still think it’s pretty mysterious. Just because someone like Bill Gates, with similar aptitude or intelligence, is presented by the same opportunities (access to state of the art computers in the early 70s), and puts in the same hours of practice, doesn’t mean that he will have the same success. Maybe that mysterious component is personality?</p>