Realizing that success is a collective phenomenon throws that perception out the window. Once we defined success along external lines, a whole new set of possibilities opened up. We could measure and quantify it, using tools of scientific inquiry. And once we did that, we could unveil the laws that govern our success.

But if we come to competition assuming equal footing, we’re far more likely to succeed. Remember how Pierre Azoulay found that an

but what is universal is that there is no upper limit on how much of it a superstar can earn. It’s unbounded.

I beamed in astonished pride when the teacher praised me. I don’t think I was particularly gifted at physics, and I certainly wasn’t passionate about it yet. The only reason I’d earned a decent 80 percent score was because a friend of my parents’, an engineer, happened to be staying with us, and the night before the quiz he’d coached me through my

Previous success × fitness = future success.

While the results are unequivocal that confidence and self-belief play a huge role in success, they have to match strong performance.

In other words, it’s performance and ambition—where she thinks she belongs—that determine your daughter’s success.

Taking all this in and thinking about the young artists I admired, I had every reason to be concerned, especially for my friend Botond Részegh, a Transylvanian artist whom I’ve known for over a decade. His fantastic illustrations helped tie together the science and history narratives in my previous book, Bursts, and I’ve long admired his paintings,

Instead, we need to bring the corner office or that prestigious gallery or that hoped-for interview closer to us.