As a society we tend to crave “talent”. Many recruiters even use the phrase “talent acquisition specialists” when it comes to hiring staff for companies.
Consider these common situations and statements we have all heard many times:
- School (“oh s/he is so clever”).
- Sport (“they are naturally gifted”).
- Work (“s/he picks things up so fast”).
Talented people can be coveted and praised so much, they forget about the effort they need to put in to keep improving. Think about it:
- “Clever” people get a big shock if and when they fail.
- Underage sports stars tend not to progress as much as anticipated.
- Talented workers can be less willing to listen and learn.
The above can happen because some people are used to their natural abilities getting them so far, and if this stops working all of a sudden, it can be difficult to deal with.
I was pretty average at sports growing up. There were always far more talented kids on the teams I represented. Sure, training would make me a little better, but at that age I just assumed because others had the talent, I would never be as good as them, so I didn’t put in too much effort. That was my level and I didn’t know any better.
That’s just a small example from a sporting perspective. Thankfully, from a career point of view, I’m very aware that what I put in is what I will get out. I work in retail, so the ability to sell would be important. When I first started I was terrible at selling, with no natural talent for it, but over time and with a lot of effort I improved greatly.
My first experience of managing people came when I was 22 with Easons bookstore. Managing and leading people felt quite natural to me from the beginning, so maybe you could call that a talent. Thankfully I realised that I needed to keep improving how I led people, otherwise I would have stood still. Putting in the effort to learn my trade made sure I got better with each passing year.
In my eyes, effort will always trump talent, no matter what walk of life you are in. Read on to find out why.
Effort will build resilience.
Resilience is probably one of the most underrated qualities a person can have. Speak to anyone who is even remotely successful in their lives (remember, success looks different for everyone and will change throughout a lifetime) and they will tell you hard work and resilience went a long way to achieving their goals.
If you rely on talent alone and an obstacle comes along, chances are you will give up. You’re used to winning and succeeding, so effort to you means you’re not good enough so why bother trying? This means you will never give yourself a chance to build up your resilience, a key tool needed in all walks of life.
On the other hand, relying on effort means you know that hard work has to be put in, otherwise you will never achieve your goals. Obstacles to you are just challenges to allow you better yourself, in turn building up that reservoir of resilience you need to tackle life.
Talent will only get you so far.
Behaviour Babble wrote a nice article about a violin school highlighting the point that talent only takes you so far. The overall result of this study showed that it was actually the students who showed long term perseverance were the most successful, not the most talented.
Christiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi are the two top soccer players of their generation, without question. This isn’t because they are the most talented, it’s down to the fact they put in more effort than anyone else to reach the top of their professions.
Talent will make you stand out at the beginning. It will take you so far, but unless it is married with some effort, it will be wasted. People with less talent who are willing to work much harder will soon pass you out. As Inspiria put it “talent may give you a head start, but hard work makes you finish the race”.
Putting in effort will lead to continuous improvement.
No matter what context we are talking about:
- Artistic.
- Sporting.
- Work related.
- Personal development.
chances are we will be required to improve as time goes on. Talent can sometimes find this hard to grasp. After all, they will think “I’m good at something, why do I need to improve?”.
The world we live in today is a demanding one though and will expect us to get better, no matter what it is we do. Effort, once focused in the right areas, can lead to continuous improvement.
Improving all the time will give someone so many benefits in their lives:
- Better work prospects.
- Higher self-esteem.
- More confidence.
- A sense of clarity.
Who wouldn’t want these traits in their lives?
Effort will help develop a growth mindset.
There are two types of mindset we have, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset. Chances are we all have a little of both, but its a growth mindset we should all be striving to have.
A fixed mindset:
- Thinks you are either good at something or not.
- Doesn’t like to be challenged.
- Sticks with old methods.
- Sees failure as a limit of abilities.
- Is jealous of others.
Whereas a growth mindset:
- Thinks you can learn to do anything.
- Sees a challenge as a chance to grow.
- Likes to try new things.
- Sees failure as a chance to improve.
- Gets inspired by others success.
Believe it or not, but many talented people can have a fixed mindset, whereas those of us who like to put in effort to achieve results tend to have a growth mindset outlook.
Mindset is a huge topic right now and will only get bigger, so it’s a blog post in it’s own right. If effort can help aid a growth mindset, it’s worth focusing on.
in conclusion.
Talent vs effort. For too long, talent was the priority, and still is in many instances. We want the quick fix, the instant results. Social media has a lot to do with our perceptions of how “easy” it is to have something we want.
But it’s not easy, it never was and never will be. Social media just doesn’t show the hard work people put in for their achievements, leading us to believe it must be down to talent. We need to realise that to have the quality of life we want, it’s effort and hard work that are the key traits to success.
It’s not glamourous to say and people don’t always have the patience for this, but effort will always beat talent in the long run.