Jennifer Marques Ferreira

Brother Mallapre

PC 101L Life Skills

12 December 2021

Hard Work Overcomes Talent

When it comes to reaching success in life, many people stick with the idea that it only

happens in the lives of people who are naturally born with special talents or even who are

very lucky. But actually, it can be categorized with two groups of successful persons: those

who are talented and the hard workers. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but my

own life experience has taught me that hard work is the key to making a change.

While I was preparing myself to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ, fear

always took over me, since I grew up being a shy person. On the other hand, I was

encouraged to keep going with my goal to serve a consecrated mission because from my own

life experience, I have seen that hard work overcomes talent. At a very young age, for

everything I put myself to do, I tried my best to be diligent in every aspect. So, when I went

to the mission field, every day during my daily planning, I made high goals to speak to the

maximum of people that I could during the day. By doing that, not only did I push myself into

doing my best, but I started to overcome my disability of speaking in public. Of course, in the

beginning, it was not easy at all. But in time, it started to become very natural for me. With

this experience, I have learned that hard work pays off, whether I am talented, or not. Also, I

always believed in a very famous quote by Thomas Edison, the American Inventor who says

that “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” Proof of it is the studies

that suggest that with a lot of practice and hard work, talented people can be beaten.
 Research shows that hard work is more important than talent. Malcolm Gladwell, a

Britannic journalist, says that “mastery comes after someone practices one skill — like

playing the violin — for 10,000 hours.” This theory was published by the psychologist

Anders Ericsson, in 1993 where he found out that this average differentiated extraordinary

violinists from average ones. It is a matter of dedication combined with persistence. The

balance between both shows the essential to develop solid and profound learning. Many

celebrities, especially at the musical ambit, have achieved their status by working hard behind

the scenes. The Britannic journalist Malcolm points out that for a person to be considered a

specialist at something, this person needs to have studied and practiced at least for 10,000

hours about a certain topic. We can see the example of the artist Beyoncé, after long years of

rehearsing, and practicing, she achieved the record for most Grammy Award wins by a

female artist in the 63-year history of the Grammy Awards.

Most people these days believe that having success in life requires talent, and we can

notice that some people can easily do things without a single effort. We all know we won’t be

talented at all things, there are certain activities we are not good at. Talent means a natural

tendency for being good at a particular thing. And cannot deny that they are naturally gifted

with talent, this group of people does not struggle at all when doing things with little effort.

On the other hand, something that not everyone considers is the fact that if someone talented

does not keep working hard, the talent can be impacted. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a philosopher

from the mid-19th century, states that “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us

to do—not that the nature of the thing is changed, but that our power to do it is increased.”

We can relate this to hard work. Those who are born untalented can be motivated by the fact

that with diligence and assiduous work, they can succeed in life even having a hard time

trying at the beginning.

 With that being said, no one has to make excuses anymore by saying they can't do

something because they may not be born with natural aptitude. But those facts presented

before can be fuel to continue working hard for achieving any goals we want to. Whether it is

a big or small one, having a persistent attitude will be a determinant factor in trying to have

success.