1. For one look at some issues related to China, see Fanny M. Cheung, Kwok Leung, Jian-Xin Zhang, Hai-Fa Sun, Yi-Qun Gan, Wei-Zhen Song, and Dong Zie, “Indigenous Chinese Personality Constructs: Is the Five-Factor Model Complete?,” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 32, no. 4 (July 2001): 407–433.
2. On the notion of useful personality concepts evolving into words, see the earlier “lexical hypothesis,” defended in, for instance, Michael C. Ashton and Kibeom Lee, “A Defence of the Lexical Approach to the Study of Personality Structure,” European Journal of Personality 19 (2005): 5–24.
3. See Sam Altman, “How to Invest in Start-Ups,” blog post, January 13, 2020, https://blog.samaltman.com/how-to-invest-in-startups.
4. Malcolm Gladwell, in his Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown, 2008), stresses the returns from practice, drawing on the research of Anders Ericsson and others.
5. On the related concept of psychological hardiness, see Salvatore R. Maddi, “The Story of Hardiness: Twenty Years of Theorizing, Research, and Practice,” Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 54, no. 3 (2002): 175–185; and Kevin J. Eschleman, Nathan A. Bowling, and Gene M. Alarcon, “A Meta-Analytic Examination of Hardiness,” International Journal of Stress Management 17, no. 4 (2010): 277–307. On hardiness in the military, see Paul T. Bartone, Robert R. Roland, James J. Picano, and Thomas J. Williams, “Psychological Hardiness Predicts Success in US Army Special Forces Candidates,” International Journal of Selection and Assessment 16, no. 1 (2008): 78–81.
6. See Arne Güllich et al., “Developmental Biographies of Olympic Super-Elite and Elite Athletes: A Multidisciplinary Pattern Recognition Analysis,” Journal of Expertise 2, no. 1 (March 2019): 23–46.
7. See Scott Simon, “Let’s Play Two! Remembering Chicago Cub Ernie Banks,” National Public Radio, January 24, 2015, https://www.npr.org/2015/01/24/379546360/lets-play-two-remembering-chicago-cub-ernie-banks.
8. For data on scientists and publication date, see Gregory J. Feist, “The Development of Scientific Talent in Westinghouse Finalists and Members of the National Academy of Sciences,” Journal of Adult Development 13, no. 1 (March 2006): 23–35.
9. For the study, see Ben Weidmann and David J. Deming, “Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Group Performance,” National Bureau of Economic Research working paper 27071, May 2020.
10. On the related concept of achievement motivation, found in the personality psychology literature, see Leonora Risse, Lisa Farrell, and Tim R. L. Fry, “Personality and Pay: Do Gender Gaps in Confidence Explain Gender Gaps in Wages?,” Oxford Economic Papers 70, no. 4 (2018): 919–949. See also Allan Wigfield, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Ulrich Schiefele, Robert W. Roeser, and Pamela Davis-Kean, “Development of Achievement Motivation,” in Handbook of Childhood Psychology, vol. III, Social, Emotional, and Personality Development, 6th ed., edited by William Damon and Richard M. Lerner, 406–434 (New York: John Wiley, 2008).
11. “Susan Barnes has observed that Steve entered every negotiation knowing exactly what he had to get, and what his position was versus the other side.” Brent Schlender, Becoming Steve Jobs (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2015), 289.