Why Talent is Overrated: Effort is Really Where It’s At

The first theme that we did in this blog was all about Growth Mindset. Growth mindset ties into our current theme, grit, in that people with a growth mindset believe that skills, including intelligence, can be learned. When you take that belief and apply it to something you’re passionate about, and dedicate the time and effort needed to practice and develop your skills, you have grit. When we think about talent, on the other hand, we may have a tendency to think talent doesn’t require effort. Either you’re talented at something, or you’re not. In today’s article, I want to look at talent vs. effort, and why talent is overrated!

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Effort Counts Twice

One of the best things I learned from Grit by Angela Duckworth [affiliate link], is the idea that effort counts twice. According to Ms. Duckworth, when you look at the formula for achievement, it looks like this:

Talent x effort = skill

And

Skill x effort = achievement

This means that while talent helps you learn a skill faster, it’s not the only thing needed in order to achieve. You need both skills and effort in applying those skills – practice – in order to achieve. 

Someone with talent isn’t automatically good at things. Conversely, someone who doesn’t have a natural talent can learn things. It may be harder, and take more time, but it can be learned. 

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

Stephen King

Talent Isn’t Everything

It’s easy to look at someone who has achieved great things and say, “Well, of course they did all that. They’re so talented.” What we don’t realize is that by saying that, we’re dismissing all the hard work it took to get there.

Talent in and of itself is not an achievement. You didn’t earn it. It was something you were born with. Someone who does nothing with their talents is not only wasting their gifts, but they will never be better at the thing they are talented at than someone willing to put in the effort to practice and accomplish something. 

In short, talent may help you learn something faster, or allow you to reach heights that others may not, but not unless you put in the effort. It still takes hard work, a lot of hard work, to turn your talents into successes and achievements. 

Talent Doesn’t Mean Never Failing

All of us have gifts. All of us have things that we have an affinity for, things we like to do, or things that seem to come more easily to us than to others. Think about when you were a kid – did you ever have someone tell you that “you’re so smart!” Or “you’re such a natural at that!” Or “you’re so talented!”

While it feels good in the moment to hear something like that, it can also be what defeats us. It can put pressure on us, especially if we’re kids when we hear it, to always succeed at that thing. Think about a time you failed at something you were supposedly “talented” at. Did you feel doubt? Like maybe you’re not talented after all?

Just because we’re talented at something doesn’t mean we will never fail. It doesn’t mean every time we try that thing that we will win. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to practice, or strive, or work to improve our skills. Talent isn’t a placebo for effort. 

Talent just means we have an affinity for something that could make us great, if we put in the time, effort, and hard work to actually do something with it. 

An Absence of Talent Doesn’t Mean Don’t Try

While I believe that we all owe it to ourselves to make use of our gifts, it doesn’t mean that if we believe we’re not gifted in something, we shouldn’t try it. The book I mentioned before, Grit [affiliate link], has myriad examples of people who were told they shouldn’t try something because they were “not suited” for or “not talented” at it. It’s chock full of examples of people that were told they had physical or mental limitations, and therefore shouldn’t try. But they did it anyway. And – shocker – they tried, and failed, and kept trying, and succeeded. 

This is because skills CAN be learned. Even if you’re not “talented” at that thing. Do you love art? Learn to draw. Don’t think you’re talented at it? Try anyway. Take a class. Practice. You will surprise yourself with what you can learn and how you can develop your skills even at something you don’t think you’re talented at. 

As I mentioned, being “talented” at something doesn’t mean you’ll immediately be good at it or never fail at it. So if you’ve never tried something, how do you even know if you’re talented or not? Sometimes all it takes is a passion and interest in something, a willingness to put in the effort, and you might find all sorts of things you’re good at. Because you gave it a shot. Talent or not. 

Change How You Look at Talent

Talent is a pervasive word. We use it all the time, and many times in a way that might be kind of “you have it or you don’t”. Companies use “talent” to describe their employees. Sports teams use “talent” to describe their athletes. The idea being that the only people “of worth” to those organizations are those that have some kind of magic “something” that makes them especially good at whatever is valued by that organization.

This tends to lead us into the mindset that if someone is not perceived as talented in that thing, that they aren’t of worth. Worse, when we believe that about ourselves, we limit ourselves to what we think we are talented at, and we might never attempt something that we might not be perfect at, at first try. 

But what if we looked at someone’s achievements, and didn’t assume that it comes from talent? What if we recognized the qualities of persistence, and perseverance, and hard work, over “talent”? How about if we praised our kids and ourselves for the effort we put into something that led to achievement, instead of patting ourselves or them on the back for “having talent”, which they didn’t do anything to get in the first place?

What would that change for us, and them? How would we and they look at our/themselves differently?

Effort, hard work, perseverance – those are things we have control over. Those are things we can do, or not do. Talent, on the other hand, is an intrinsic something that is perceived as “given” to us. Personally, I’d rather be recognized for the hard work I put into something rather than some quality I was born with. Because then it means I can achieve even more if I work harder, dedicate myself more, practice more. Plus, then I will feel like I earned it. 

Talent Plus Practice

All this is not to say that I think talent is worthless, or that we should disregard our talents. I believe that the true “magic” happens when we are able to combine our natural affinity for something with hard work, perseverance, and practice. If we can understand that talent doesn’t mean instant perfection, and that being talented at something doesn’t mean we’ll never fail, we can achieve some truly awesome things.

As I try to internalize this concept and make it part of my natural thinking, I would encourage you to do the same. Find things you like doing, or that you’ve always wanted to try, and go try them! Fail! Fall flat on your face a few times, and get back up, and try again! Measure your progress. I promise you’ll see it. Don’t let the idea that talent, or lack thereof, should dictate what you do or don’t do. 

Go forth and be awesome! At whatever!