Talent doesn’t count for much – you’ll see talent going down the drain all the time.
Talent can be a barrier in your way, if it creates an ego in you that prevents you from learning. We learn from people around us – and ego stops us from doing that. It says “Oh, I am an educated person. What can my uneducated domestic help know more than me?” It says “Haha, I studied political science at Stephen’s, what do you know about how the poor is suffering in India? Someday I shall make time and teach you all about India’s current political situation.” Obviously, your ego makes you forget that you can benefit from listening, that everyone has unique life experiences that teach them things that others don’t know. Talent slows down the intrinsic hunger for learning from every situation and every person as people rely on talent more instead of learning.
It was talent that made the hare lose to the tortoise. Talent does not come bundled with responsibility, as Spiderman would like us to believe. Everyone has to learn to be responsible – talent without responsibility and accountability is hardly ever a great force.
Talent is a like a prize from a lottery that you received without having enrolled for it. Now that you got a prize you never asked for, you don’t know what to do with it. Until you learn to put it to good use, its utterly useless in your life.
Talent is not needed to do well. It is better to forget that you are talented. You rather need confidence that you can be the best in what you are doing. You need to believe that it is going to be a hard road, that you are not entitled to it but no one can stop you from getting there because you are very motivated.
Forget your talent, and find your motivation. Find your true goals in life. Then we can see if the talent is of any use.
All the time, you shall see persistent, humble, never-say-die fighters with much less apparent talent or intelligence do well and beat the talented people again and again.
This is how I look at things today – this is my approach to life. What do the Rodinhooders think?
I know there are people here who can teach me a thing or two about this – looking forward to some great conversations.
I wrote this first on my personal blog: A First Taste of Law
