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You can do it, but is it worth it?

Note: I've rewritten this post for like the millionth time now. I eventually took it down because I realized it was just dog at the end of the day. So I've settled on this, hopefully i will post more often.

If you really wanted to, you could essentially get the same results as the person you see as talented.

Sadly, talent is rarely taken advantage of to its full extent these days. There is just so much to be distracted by that the talent many possess does not receive the attention and nourishment it needs to develop. So usually, talent serves as a leg up in most of the early stages of the development of a skill or in a career. But there are a million quotes about hard work beating talent, making it serve as the great equalizer.

So then why does it seem like the person who with some talent in some area really is in a different league when you take a look at them? Their accomplishments seem completely impossible to you, and you feel like you could never do what they do.

But I would argue that you probably could have. It may just not have been worth it.

I suggest that talent is what helps the talented over the learning curve that weeds out most others. This may sound like a self serving bias/ external locus of control type idea, but hear me out. I am not saying they only got as far as they did because of talent. I am only suggesting that the effort required to keep the same pace as them while overcoming the learning curve would have been much harder for an average person to keep up with. But with enough effort, maybe an extreme amount, an average person may have been able to match it.

But in extremely competitive areas where at least a bit of talent is nearly required, maybe the average person would have needed to give unreasonable amounts of effort. This is of course subjective, as I'm sure the image of a person who feels like the hours of blood, sweat and tears felt like nothing but joy in pursuit of their obsession comes to mind. But for an average person who does not care too much about the same goal, the countless sleepless nights, constant razor focus, and sidelining of other areas of life in pursuit of a goal may not be worth it.

Again, I don't say all this to vindicate the person who thinks anyone could have done the work of a talented person. Talent and hard work is a deadly combo very few can match no matter their effort, and enough talent can sometimes tell the same story. But for a person who without a doubt has the burning passion but unfortunately little or no talent. I just want to assure them their efforts can still achieve results even the talented would respect. I would only warn them to make certain they have real passion and are ready for a struggle.

Modern participation trophy and "you can do anything you want" attitude has often sparked excitement that hasn't had time to develop into genuine passion. The mere excitement is used to justify jumping onto a difficult path whose rewards may not be worth the effort if the passion is not truly there.