I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘Talent’ a lot of times in your life. “He’s such a talented dude, man. He’s amazing”. “The talent in this man is just unbelievable!”. Sounds familiar right ? We use this term to define a person who has a special gift in a particular aspect of life. We define the ability of a person in a field of work. When we’re astonished by the perfection with which a man can do a job, we say “wow, he’s is so talented”. It seems to be a commonly used word. But how often have you heard or used the word ‘skillful‘ or ‘skilled‘ to describe a person ? From what I’ve noticed in people, most of us don’t use the term at all, we always tend to replace it with ‘Talent’. You may be wondering why I said replaced. I’ll tell you why.
Have you ever wondered about the difference between skill and talent ? If not, let me explain it to you. Thanks to my habit of watching countless motivational videos and interviews of highly successful people, I’ve been able to learn a bit about it. Here are some of the things you need to know :
- Talents are freely given. Skills are not
To put it in simple words, a talent is something that is god given. When your naturally good at something, you call it a talent. When you do something for the very first time, or you’ve been doing it only for a small amount of time and you’re already pretty good at it, that means you have a natural ability. Talent is a natural ability, a skill is not.
Notice how I use the word ‘good’ in the when I talk about talent ? Why did I not use the word ‘great’ instead ? Because greatness cannot be achieved with the help of talent alone. The transition from good to great moves you to a completely different phase of your life, a phase where you move from being just talented to being skillful. When talent is nurtured well and disciplined over time, it becomes a skill.
Talent ? I don’t believe in talent. it’s good to have talent, but as long as you have determination and will power, that’s all you need. You have to have the will to win — Mike Tyson
To make it more understandable, when Talent is mixed with hard-work and consistency, it becomes a skill. This is the reason why many of the greats say that they believe in their skill rather than their talent. They understand the fact that being skillful at their craft is a different ball game.
- Skill equals longevity. Talent does not
When we look at the lives of legendary people, we see that they manage to dominate their crafts for long periods of time. It takes a lot of work for a man to reach the top tier of his craft, but it is much harder to stay on that level for long. A skillful man is a master of his craft, he has reached top levels in all aspects of his work and there aren’t many things that would be able to stop him. When Lebron James arrived to the NBA in 2003, he was considered as the next big thing. People looked at how good he was in his high school days and named him as the ‘chosen one’. He was an unbelievable player from the start, and he’s been the same till now, 19 years later. He’s probably the most talented guy to ever step foot in the league, but the reason he is on top till now is because of his incredible work ethic and dedication. That’s what skill is all about. It takes a lot to be skillful.
Hope you liked this post. Thanks for reading
