Talent

There have been numerous talks about Charlie Sheen and his recent behaviour. I had one such talk with my parents yesterday. They said something along the lines of him wasting his talent because of his reckless behaviour. Which got me thinking about exactly that. Talent?

Because what exactly is talent? I guess the most common answer you'll find is that it's a natural ability to do something quite well. Let's take playing the keyboard as an example. Someone with talent would no doubt be good without much practice, while someone with no talent would take an extremely long time to learn even the simplest songs. Sounds logical so far, right?

The problem I have with this prinicipal is that talent is often attributed to people who are good at something. I don't agree with it. Sure there may be some people who are indeed talented at something and became famous with them, but if everyone who is famous was talented in their specific area where does that leave the average Joe? Is it not possible that someone became very good in a certain field because of hard work? Attributing it all to talent is not giving the artist enough credit.

Most people who become famous in a field, and I'll use the music industry as an example, have only gotten that far because they worked really hard to get there. If you want to become a really good keyboard player, talent alone is not going to cut it. You need dedication and hard work, and lots  of it. Do you think that the great keyboardists(is that a word?) out there have gotten to where they are only because of their talent. I highly doubt it.

Attributing everything to talent also creates a vacuum between the people we see on tv and the people we are. Think about it. If I have to answer whether I think I'm talented at something I would have to answer  negative. I don't excel in any area so I don't have a talent for something, or at least have yet to discover it. The same goes for nearly all of my friends. There are only 1 or 2 who I would call talented in a certain field. The rest is not. Does that mean we can't become good at something? Hopefully not. If that would be the case I might as well give up my dreams now. How could I compete against the talented people with my limited skillset.

I'm not trying to say that talent doesn't exist, actually I'm pretty sure it does. I believe that talent provides us with a considerable advantage and disadvantage. Let's look at the advantage first. There is no doubt that having talent gives you a considerable advantage over people with no talent. If someone with no talent were to start playing guitar for example, he would find it extremely difficult. It would take him a long time before he would finally be able to play his first chord or song. On the other hand if someone with talent would start playing guitar I imagine he would pick up the first chords rather quickly. It wouldn't be all to long before he would be able to play his first song.

The advantage given to people with talent is bigger than it may seem. When trying to learn something, the most important feedback we get are the results from what we play. If I were to pick up a guitar now and play something it would no doubt sound like crap. This informs me that I am not very good at playing the guitar. A talented person would get much better feedback. He could play a chord which will sound nice. He gets feedback which informs him he is doing good. This will make it much easier for him to continue playing as he already has a sense of satisfaction while I have to make do with my negative feedback. It will take me some time to get the chord right, all the while getting bad feedback for every misstrum I make. The only thing that will keep me going on is dedication. I'm much more likely to quit playing guitar than the talented person is. This is exactly what happens in real life. Untalented people become discouraged by the negative feedback they recieve and they simply stop playing alltogether. They need way more dedication than the talented player to keep going.

The disadvantage is that because someone is talented in something they may not find it challenging enough and stop playing, arguably wasting their talent.

In the end talent is nice to have but it only affects your starting position. Sure a talented person would have it easier in the beginning but he would need dedication to keep going as well. Because that´s all there is to it. If you want to become good at something your most important tool will be dedication. The dedication to keep going even when things aren´t looking up, and believe me these times will come. And those people on tv. Well they´re probably where they are right now because of that exact same thing, dedication to become good at what they like. So next time you look at someone and think: Wow that guy sure is talented; try to look a bit further. You have every chance to become as good as they are. And don't be discouraged if, like 99% of the population, you haven't got a talent. Because in the end talent is only a bonus. It's not necessary to get far. That would be dedication. And we can all get that.