When amateurs meet, they don’t edge each other out by being slightly more skillful. Instead, it’s a contest of who makes the fewest huge, gaping blunders. Amateurs constantly make egregious point- and game-losing mistakes, of the sort that pros no longer make. The outcome is decided by who makes the fewest — or least catastrophic — such mistakes.”
It turns out a 1970s book about how to get better at tennis includes a brilliant observation about what separates amateurs from pros in all things.
The book points out success among amateurs is determined by who makes the least mistakes, but pros have eliminated basic mistakes so success is determined by a slight edge one pro has over another.
Raptitude explores what this means when applied to other pursuits and suggests the key to becoming a pro is to focus on eliminating simple mistakes as opposed looking for an edge.