Hard Work Beats Talent Every Day

By: Joshua Flanagan

It feels good to be talented but ‘Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard’. The vast majority of successful people are said to be ‘simply talented' or ‘lucky’. Talent is a gift, but luck is preparedness meeting opportunity. The harder you work, the more prepared you become for opportunity thus making it seem you are ‘luckier’ than most.

The word talent is heard in a variety of contexts. According to the Webster definition of talent, is ‘natural ability or power’. Yes, talent is the easiest way to achieve goals, it takes less time and effort to reach the top. It is the path of least resistance and as humans we seek that out. However, is it the most rewarding or even the most efficient? I do not believe so. Hard work is a mindset, it is painful, uncomfortable, challenging. It allows us to face adversity and grow through that adversity. It calluses our minds in a way that only hard work can. It can lead us to a spot, where no natural talent in the world can come close. You can achieve any dream and vision with hard work.

Hard work is universal. Although the criteria for hard work may vary for different people. Hard work can either be pulling all-nighters to ace a competitive exam or it can be sweating in a farm under the hot blazing sun to get the fruitful result.  

Will To Work:

Some people set goals, make plans, are highly motivated, but then they give up. The reason is that they lose motivation when negative thoughts hit their mind ‘I’m not talented enough to do this' or ‘I may have some other talent, I’m not good at this’. Their own goals start to seem impossible. They don’t possess qualities like commitment, consistent effort, and sticking to the vision. They keep jumping from one goal to another, thinking they don’t possess that particular talent and end up settling for less. They make their goals easier to achieve so that hard work can be avoided. But unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to success, talent can be a short term ease. But that does not work after a while.

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work” -Oprah Winfrey.

What Does Hard Work Look Like?

Hard work has no substitute, not even talent. There is only one road, and that road has storms in the way, goes through the desert, and is very long and slow. That is the road that leads to long-lasting accomplishments. The experience, practice, years of hard work, and smart choices are the paths prosperous people laid track on. Hard work is like climbing Mount Everest. Going through the hardships, the icefalls, hazard, avalanches, frostbite, and several other obstacles and threats. And finally, the extreme altitude comes, the destination is so close, heart pumping blood harder, many run out of oxygen, the track becomes steeper, and there comes the real test. In simple words, this is called consistent effort. You have to keep going even when you are sick of trying again and again, when you think this is as far as you could have go, your energy is all utilized but you have to give one more try, just one more push, one extra mile, one more attempt, and certainly you will reach the summit.

Talent Sounds Good:

We can not just deny the fact that talent can lead to high-level performance. Some talents are inherited and inborn, like a melodious voice, a five-year-old mathematician, a 2-year-old footballer. All these talents amaze us. It is accurate that talent requires little effort and time. But possessing a talent has its cons too. Less effort leads to laziness and the habit of not working hard enough, which becomes the cause of short term success. Here is where hard work comes into play. Hard Work demands will power, high spirits, and passion. People who choose to work hard are goal-oriented and more focused which equals higher levels of success. When you couple talent with hard work it is an unstoppable force.

Luck is Preparedness Meeting Opportunity:

‘I worked so hard and yet I failed' You must have heard this line many times and said it to yourself too. People assume, no matter how hard they work, the success really depends on luck. Let’s go back in 2013 when Ray Allen hit a contested 3-pointer, which is considered the greatest shot in NBA history. He did it without looking and gave a jaw-dropping performance. He said in an interview “I was really waiting for somebody at some point this summer to really tell me that was a lucky shot because anybody that knows me or has been around me knows that it was not luck. Everybody who is around me said ‘Yep, that’s what he does'”. Allen denied that his remarkable performance had anything to do with his luck and took pride in his hard work. He practiced over and over until he could do it without looking and under immense pressure. He laid down on his back, jumped up, back paddled to the line, and repeated a thousand times. This extreme practice is why he was always prepared.

Let These People Be An Inspiration:

Talent does not make you star of the team; it is the hardworking capacity. This world is full of people who made incremental progress, not because of their talent, but the hard work they put in. Here are some people who proved that anything can be achieved if you are willing to work. Tim Cook (Apple CEO) starts his routine of sending emails to employees at 4:30 in the morning. He is the first one to enter the office and the last one to leave. For Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) working 13 hours, a day is not enough. So, he works at home too. Ryan Seacrest (American Idol Host) not only runs a television production company but appears seven days a week at E and hosts a radio show from 5 to 10 a.m. Venus and Serena Williams dominated women’s tennis by practicing at 6 a.m. before school and then after school too at the age of 7. And now comes Marissa Mayer (Yahoo CEO) who put in 130 hours per week at Google and managed to get sleep under her desk. She said she did it by ‘strategic’ showers. She got her reward by getting one of the biggest jobs in the technology world. Some people are born with a genius brain, but that genius brain needs to be harvested and cultivated too.

Talent gives you a push, but hard work makes you finish the race, and it is the timeless truth. Hard work overpowers talent. If you want to be the pinnacle of success, work on the formulae of hard work. Double the time, become a workaholic, have a clear vision and pure dedication, push harder, take the painful steps, then take extra steps, blast through obstacles, fall in love with hard work, move further towards your goal, do whatever it takes to achieve your goal, prosper towards success and you will surely create a monster of talent.