Talent is overrated!
I have seen people saying, “That person is very talented” but I hardly see people saying, “That person is very skillful”!
All of us are born with some talent. But to succeed you need to practice and improve your skills. Your talent gets converted to skills only through practice. And practice means hard work.
As a child when we are told, “good boy”, our brain gets a false signal that we are great and then we stop thinking and stop doing things that can actually help us become great. So, never allow such false signals to enter your brain.
For example, you may write well but if you do not write and publish content regularly then it’s a wasted talent. I have seen many middle-aged people being regretful that they didn’t follow their passion at the right time. So do not allow that to happen to you. Always do what you love to do. And if you start that at an early age your chance of success improves.
I have seen many talented individuals not reaching their true potential. Most of the time the blame would be on the individual though most do not accept that fact.
Winners never give excuses. Losers do.
Have you ever seen a successful person blaming their luck if they fail in any activity? No, because they learn from their failures, and learning from failures will only start when you stop giving excuses for your failures. You need to accept that you failed and then you need to look into the reasons and thereafter you will find a way to overcome that failure.
Let’s take the example of Vinod Kambli. Both Vinod Kambli and Sachin Tendulkar came to be known to the cricketing world together after their world record partnership of 664 runs in school cricket. From there Sachin got selected to the Indian team within 3 years whereas Kambli got selected after 7 years. By the time Kambli got into the Indian team, Sachin was already an established batsman but that didn’t stop him from trying to improve his game. Kambli in the meanwhile scored back-to-back double centuries in his 3rd and 4th Test match and immediately got into a self-gratification mode. What happened thereafter was that Kambli lost his place in the Indian team in 1997 whereas Sachin carried on and finally retired in 2013.
Talent-wise both Sachin and Kambli were no less than each other at the age of 14 years but one kept on practicing and improving whereas the other got self-gratified and didn’t practice enough to plug the loopholes in his batting and finished with an unfulfilled career.
Now let’s think of Anil Kumble. He was in his first series in England in 1990 when he dropped a catch and didn’t do great with the ball too. Kapil Dev told him that he will be surprised if he will have a long career with India. How wrong was he? Because Anil Kumble kept working hard and he not only went on to beat Kapil’s record in picking up maximum test wickets for India – he keeps holding that record even after 14 years of his retirement.
Talent can get you to a certain level but to be successful it’s the skills that take you far. And one needs to consistently work on his or her skills because if you don’t, someone else will come in from behind and push you back. So how do we do that?
1. Honing your skills.
First, ask this question yourself. What are you good at? You can only answer this question. If you are good at writing then you need to write daily and you need to read daily. You need to read because you will learn more perspectives and it will help you become a better writer.
Be a creator as well as a consumer.
2. Consistent.
You need to practice your skill daily. Each day you need to write. Do not think or rather overthink if it’s good or bad. Write for yourself. Writing will de-clutter your mind. Initially other than a couple of people others won’t even read your content. Doesn’t matter. Keep going. Keep writing every day. Write a blog. Then take that blog and convert it into multiple tweets or LinkedIn posts. Write LinkedIn articles. Just keep writing.
3. DOTS
Do One Thing Surely. For me it’s writing so I make sure that I give 2-3 hours every day on writing. Do this daily for more than 3 years and you will see results coming in. Do not get a false hope if you get a lot of traction in 6 months because the keyword is consistent. Even on your worst days, you should show up. This is your passion so you don’t need external motivation.
4. Power of 1%
Keep improving by 1% daily. You are your own competitor and hence you need to be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday. It’s far better to compete with yourself than competing or comparing yourself to others. Think of Sergei Bubka – the man broke his own record 34 times. The rest of the field used to compete for the silver medal whereas Bubka was busy breaking his own records. This is only possible if you remain humble, stay grounded and believe in the power of 1%.
Do not get into a false hope or do not send signals to your brain that because you are talented your life will be set. Nothing is set because we are all talented. But talent doesn’t get food to the table – Skills do. And hence you need to keep developing your skills.
Only when you turn your talent into your skill will you find fulfillment in your life.
