Posted by I was watching a show tonight about piano prodigies and it made me recall the time when I was young when I too was a piano student. Oh I don’t know if I was ever as talented as the kids on that show; I’m not sure I could have ever risen to the highest levels of excellence in the piano world. I think I do have a decent level of talent but I never had the drive, the willingness to work hard to develop my natural abilities. I’ve always used that laziness as a way of explaining away my lack of achievement in that field. But isn’t that rationalisation an insult to those who do work hard to develop their talents?
I think that the willingness to work hard must needs be incorporated into the definition of talent. The highest levels of excellence in all fields are dominated by those who have the done the most to develop their already sizeable talents. Is Jerry Rice the best wide receiver of all-time because of his prodigious talent or his legendary work out habits? It doesn’t matter – he did both and he did it d*mn well.
The smartest kid I knew in high school was also the most undisciplined. He could afford not to pay attention or skip class for days on end and then come in on the day of a geometry exam and finish in 5 minutes what took most of us the full 40 minutes to complete; and he’d get a 100% while I was stuck at 95% for my efforts. His ability did not confound me but his lack of discipline did (not that I have ever been disciplined in anything). I think he delivers pizzas for a living now. I’m not trying to denigrate his life but I can’t help but think that he should be doing ‘important’ research at a prestigious university or breaking enemy codes for the CIA or FBI. I hope he’s happy with his station but that’s not my point.
My point is that his unwillingness to develop his math talents and my unwillingness to develop my piano talents should diminish an assessment of our talents in those and other respective endeavors. It’s not enough to say that we could have turned it on had we wanted to but just didn’t – in the end, results matter not unfulfilled potential.
