I admire people with talent, and enjoy seeing people perform at the peak of their ability. I like to watch musicians, vocalists, artists, athletes, public speakers, actors, and so many more. For many people talent is very visible. However for the majority of us normal folk, talent is not as visible.
There are times when watching a great vocalist, and I find myself wishing I had more singing talent. We cannot all be great singers. How boring would this world be if we all had the same talents? Each of us have unique talents, and we can be more successful if we put them to use.
Talents are a great starting point, but talent alone is never enough. All of the people that have used their talent for great achievement did not find success just on their talent. Here are the three things that turn talent into success.
1. Hard work: Talent is developed. It is true you may have some natural abilities that strengthen your talent, but great talent is only developed through hard work. I have seen behind the scenes of many great public speakers. I have been taught many of the techniques they use to deliver a message and engage an audience. The audience does not notice them, because if they did, then the speaker would not be that good. John Maxwell is one of today’s most successful speakers on leadership, and he diligently started developing his talent when he was only 17 years old.
2. Passion: Passion is what makes the hard work seem like it is not hard work. Passion is what allows a person to dedicate their life to developing their talent. You must love what you do to be great at it. The best vocalists combine technical perfection with raw passion that you can hear in their song.
3. Perseverance: People that succeed in developing their talent do not fear failure. Everyone fails many times in their life. High achievers look at a failure as an opportunity to learn, or an opportunity to try a different solution. It is well know that Thomas Edison had nearly 10,000 experiments fail that eventually led to the development of the light bulb. Accepting failure as a speed bump and not a road block is an important quality for your own development.
Do you know your talent? Are you combining hard work, passion, and perseverance to develop it fully?