“You’re not talented.”
“You need more talent.”
“Can’t make it without talent.”
Talent is overrated and I think it should be reinterpreted to mean something more useful and actionable.
Skill and Talent are a lot of times interchangeable. More often, Talent is used to mean something more innate and gifted. While Skill is used to describe an ability that is learned and acquired.
A lot of the times, people describe talent as something you’re born with. And that lie is enough for a lot of people to just give up. They decide they don’t have what it takes so it must not be for them, they’ll never make it. And a story or contribution to the world, a path not taken, what could have been will never be but most insidious is limiting beliefs take root.
There are too many counter-examples of “untalented” people that do “make it”, that do succeed. They use their passion, dedication and perseverance to overcome their own “inabilities”. But it isn’t easy, because they do have to work harder than the “talented” people. More work, more time, sweat, blood and tears. So talent is something and does mean something but it isn’t an elusive magic genie only the rarest are gifted with.
Talent is not the “thing”. Skill is the “thing”. Dedication is the “thing”. Passion is the “thing”. Perseverance is the “thing”.
Lets repurpose Talent to be understood as a measurement of rate. This recontextualization is actionable, constructive, non-defeatist.
For example, for someone it may take 1000 repetitions to acquire that one skill at a proficient then to expert level. While it may take another person only 100 repetitions. Talent is not being born with that ability, Talent is the rate at which that skill is built and acquired.
While it may take longer and be harder for the slower talent but at 1000 vs 100 repetitions, the skill between the two people is the same and indistinguishable. It just requires more.
In this hypothetical example, the “Talented” person can basically learn 10 more skills in the time it takes the “Untalented” person to learn one skill. But a “Talented” person is more tempted to fall into a lackadaisical, superiority mindset. Hence why there are a lot of “Talented” people we’ve never heard of and never “make it”. Everyone has their own battles to contend with.
But “Beastmode” is activated when someone with accelerated Talent works as if they were “untalented”. Fitting 10 skill cycles in 1000 repetitions, smart stacking progressions, layering ability, talent and intellect into the skill – so distilled and focused it becomes intuition.
Now, what I’m describing may just seem like semantics of the meaning Talent. Maybe, but I contend there is a nuance, one that is non-defeatist, actionable and constructive. One that doesn’t purvey the myth of Talent being a rare and impossible commodity.
Don’t fall into the trap of not having Talent is your limiting factor. The only limiting factor is what you tell yourself and how much blood, sweat and tears you’re willing to drip into what you’re doing. If you love it, do it with passion, humility and generosity.