Talent Overrated: Why Natural Talent Is Not Enough for Success

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Without diligence and work, giftedness is just an empty phrase.

What is considered a talent

According to the dictionaries, talent is outstanding innate qualities, special natural abilities. In fact, it is assumed that a person from birth has some kind of exceptional gift. Just genetics, or an angel kissed the forehead - it depends on what you believe in.

However, in reality, the topic of innate abilities is not so simple. Some factors are indeed genetically driven - the eversion of the joints for ballet or the length of the arms and legs for powerlifting. But there are questions about others.

For example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is considered a child prodigy. Allegedly, at the age of 5, he was already composing short plays. But Wolfgang was born into the family of a composer, from infancy he heard music, saw how they play a musical instrument, and studied it himself. Would the story of an Austrian be repeated if he was born into a bricklayer's family? In other words, are Mozart's skills a gift or is it just a result of the composer's early involvement in music? Perhaps, if Mozart was growing up now, we would consider him not a child prodigy, but a victim of parental pressure and ambition - who knows.

There are more questions than answers. A person starts doing something from infancy because he has a gift? Or are the skills that we consider talent formed when people learn something from childhood?

Hungarian teacher Laszlo Polgar once decided that children can show high achievements if they train a lot and systematically. Laszlo decided to test his hypothesis on his three daughters. He taught them how to play chess because it is easy to track progress through competition. The experiment was successful. All of Polgar's daughters grew up to be titled chess players. One of them, Judit, became the youngest male grandmaster in 1991, beating Robert Fischer.

By the way, the labels "gifted" or "no talent" can have an impact on the further development of a person. This can be seen even in whole groups of people. For example, in countries with high levels of gender inequality, boys are better at solving math problems than girls. But in countries where the latter are not told that they "by nature" do not have mathematical abilities, girls cope with tasks at least at the same level as boys.

What's wrong with the idea of talent

Belief in a certain gift that will always help and lead to success leads to the existence of several harmful myths at once.

One talent is enough for success

It is assumed that a gifted person, by default and without any preparation, is better than everyone else. Here's how Ilya Muromets: he lay for 33 years on the stove, and then got up and crumbled the Pechenegs into porridge. Which, of course, is not the case.

Take one of the areas where genetic characteristics really matter, such as bodybuilding. Obviously, muscles grow at different rates in different people. Accordingly, it will be easier for one to pump up than another. And drying, that is, the process of getting rid of the fat layer with minimal muscle loss, is given to everyone differently. Finally, unchanged body proportions, such as height and length of the limbs, and many other factors, matter. But if a genetically gifted person has not spent even a day in the gym, then he will lose to the one who worked hard.

Therefore, talent alone will not go far.

Talented people get it simply

If you consider that one talent is enough for success, then you can easily devalue the merits of people who worked hard. Of course, innate abilities really make the journey easier. For example, learning a large array of information is much easier for a person who memorizes any text from the first reading.

But the depreciation does not become less offensive from this. Let's say someone knows several languages. But they say to him: “Great to you! You probably have a penchant for foreign languages and in general you are a humanitarian. But this is not given to me. Although the person did not absorb knowledge from outer space, but went to the tutor and studied. But the interlocutor did nothing, but for some reason casts doubt on the merits of others.

The mechanism of depreciation is clear: it is easier to decide that the other got everything just like that, than to admit that your own failures are the result of a flaw. But still.

Talent will always break through

This idea is based on a survivor's mistake. We hear stories of how someone knocked down the thresholds, got up after another fall, and as a result, years later, came to success. But stories about buried talent we hear less often and are skeptical of them. If it didn’t work out, then he’s not a very gifted person. I would have given up my stupidity - what he is fond of there - and got down to business.

Although history knows cases when a person continued his "stupidity", and his talent was recognized after death. Among such people are the artists Gauguin and Van Gogh, the writers Stendhal and Kafka. And these are all artists who live forever. Obviously, there are many more people who could not realize less outstanding talents.

If there is no talent, back down

Since talent is an innate feature, it is assumed that it will manifest itself in early childhood. For example, Masha became the soloist of The Metropolitan Opera - of course, because she began to sing before she walked. And if a person in early childhood beat nettles with a stick, then he apparently has no talent. Such a child just has to move on and do something easier.

Naturally, this "lack of giftedness" can be very demotivating. Especially if a person wants to do something creative. Study accounting - as much as you like. Start singing at 21 - only if it is a non-binding hobby.

It is even worse when a person loves something from childhood, but they tell him that he is not very gifted. At this age, the child himself is often not even allowed to decide whether to continue classes or not. It all depends on the parents: they either support or force them to quit in order to do something more, in their opinion, promising.

But perseverance is perhaps more important than innate giftedness. For example, the eminent ballerina Diana Vishneva told in an interview with Katerina Gordeeva that she faced problems when entering the Leningrad Choreographic School. She was told that she had no data for ballet. But she trained hard, entered the school and became a soloist of the Mariinsky Theater at the age of 20.

What you need to be successful besides talent

It is impossible to deny the existence of a certain predisposition to this or that occupation. However, earlier we also decided that talent alone is not enough for success. Something else is required.

Hard work and diligence

At the end of the 20th century, psychologist Anders Erikson studied musicians. He took three groups of violinists - brilliant performers, promising and those who missed the stars from the sky. Each of them was asked how much he had been making music since the moment he first picked up the instrument.

All students started playing at about five years old and the first years learned, plus or minus the same. But then there were differences. In total, by the time of the study, the stars were engaged in 10 thousand hours, and the outsiders - 4 thousand. And this is a big run-up in practice.

Later, the studies were repeated on pianists, darts players, and everywhere the correspondence was confirmed: the more a person practiced, the better results showed. More recent polls, however, show that practice does not affect success as significantly as Erickson's, but they do not completely refute his conclusions.

However, in general, the essence is clear: if you are three times talented, you still have to plow. Simply, perhaps a little less than someone who is not so gifted.

Leaving your comfort zone

This expression set the teeth on edge, but alas: if you do the same thing day after day, you can do it endlessly with talent, but there will be no development. For example, Picasso has many works in the style familiar to us (and to his contemporaries). But who knows if he would have been recognized as a genius of this magnitude if the artist had not tried something new and became the founder of Cubism?

Education

Talent is good, but usually it does not replace education. This is not necessarily an educational institution. But in any business there are some foundations, the knowledge of which will greatly facilitate the path. To take off, you need a launch pad.

Communication skills

No matter how genius a person is, if he is unpleasant in communication, his talent will have fewer fans. Especially now, when the institution of reputation is strengthening. So being nice and polite is not bad - although not so much that you sit on your neck.

Luck

Where without it. Different people have different conditions. It's trite: two people have the same ability in mathematics. But one has drinking parents and a tyrant teacher, while the other has a supportive family and a teacher who trains the Olympiad team. Obviously, who will be easier.

Circumstances are very different, and life is not very fair. So there is only one way out: do not miss the moment.