Natural talent is not only a myth, but it is also insulting. It's insulting to Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, Wayne Gretzky, Stephen Hawking, Christopher Reeves... and little Johnny who's in my afternoon science class. It's insulting to all successful people who worked so very hard to reach their accomplishments.
We could blame successful people for duping us, but in the end, we are only fooling ourselves.
There is no magic bullet.
There is no long lost treasure map to success.
Too often we are distracted by the flash to notice the fire.
Too often we are distracted by ability to notice the effort.
Too often we are distracted by the championships to notice practices.
Talent is overrated, and natural ability is a myth.
Geoff Colvin explains:
All we can say for the moment is that no specific genes identifying particular talents have been found. It's possible that they will be; scientists could yet find the piano-playing gene or investing gene or accounting gene. But they haven't so far, and doing so could be a long shot. The most one could say is that if genes exert any influence, it would seem to be much less than the whole explanation for achieving the highest levels of performance.
In his book The Genius in All of Us, David Shenk writes:
Most underachievers are very likely not prisoners of their own DNA, but rather have so far been unable to tap into their true potential.Micheal's right - we make excuses.
Talent is Overrated is a great read. I think a lot about how we help kids develop stamina and persistence. What we do to nurture these skills in ourselves and our children. Thanks for giving value to effort and hard work. It's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very confusing video, I did not get the message.
ReplyDeletei think he is trying to say that if you have a passion and you truly love it, go for it. and if you practice you will get better.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really good video because some people say wow that kids not only good I think he has naterual talent to ,but I think that ofeends the person who has worked hard to get where they are
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of a time I was watching one of those live donate things, (it was on the net with a chatbox to the side) and when one of the guys there was playing on the piano someone posted "OMG I love Tom he's so talented!" And it pissed me off to rant about it in my devart journal.
ReplyDeleteI just hate it when people say other people are talented, cause no, they didn't just wake up one day, go to the piano, and suddenly be able to play, they worked for it and THAT'S why they can do it, not cause God suddenly decided "Hey, this guy should play the piano." HE decided and HE practiced.