A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry debunking the myth of 'Following Your Passion'. It was one of the most viewed of anything I've published - getting more than 10x as many views as its next competitor. Lately I've been thinking about another destructive myth: the myth of The Natural. You know, the effortless achiever - the person who discovers a natural ability and then succeeds without breaking a sweat.
There's this idea that we are each born with some special gift, and finding that gift means you don't have to work for your success. And there is a corollary that if you have to work hard, then you're not exploiting your natural ability. Your 'gift' is not the same as your 'passion'. It's that innate talent that enables you to throw a ball, or craft a sculpture, or design a smartphone with no practice, study, or experience. And it's bunk.
I think it's a particularly American myth. For some reason we don't want to think of our heros - in sports, art, business, or entertainment - as having to work hard for their success. We credit natural talents over earned success. We especially love the athletes who make it look easy. Did you ever watch Michael Jordan play basketball? Time after time he made incredible jump shots, three-pointers and dunks. He had a fluidity, ease and grace that made every impossible shot look like it was simple. At times it looked like he could walk through the air. I remember one shot during an NBA Championship when he drove down the court, turned and made some crazy backward basket - and then looked at the camera and shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I even amaze myself."
Jordan looked like a natural, but he was not. According to his long-time coach Phil Jackson, when Jordan came to the NBA he couldn't shoot from the outside and he wasn't particularly good on defense. He couldn't rely on his natural ability - he had to develop a plan to become a better player. By taking hundreds of additional jump shots a day, even in the off-season, he became a 'deadly three-point shooter'. He studied his opponents' moves and developed strategies to stop them. He practiced foul shots. He trained hard to make it look easy. The result: six championships, five-time MVP, fourteen All-Star games, and a reasonable argument for the best basketball player of all time.
Of course there is a role that talent and ability plays. At 5' 7", I'm not going to the NBA no matter how hard I practice. Exceptional athletes do have physical talents the rest of us don't have. But turning those physiological differences into athletic success requires dedication and hard work. No one is born a superstar.
It's the same outside of sports. The successful businessman, movie star, musician, or artist isn't a Natural. The magic of Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, and Philip Seymour Hoffman isn't their ability to memorize lines - it's the background and work they put into constructing a believable character. We love to watch these people because they hide the huge effort they put in. It seems they were 'built' for the role, but in fact they created it. If you look at most successful people, you'll see a lot of time and effort behind their success.
I think there is a certain laziness in believing in the Natural. It would be great to discover some inborn ability that produced success without effort. You could get up each morning, go to work (or the stadium, or set, or studio), be brilliant and then come home and forget about it. But it doesn't happen that way. Success is earned, and earning it requires discipline, training, drill, and dedication.
Also, it's a fact that hard work is only a necessary condition for success - it's not a guarantee. You'll still need some talent, plus hard work, plus some luck.
I hope this isn't discouraging news. It's true that we all don't have the talent of Michael Jordan or Mark Zuckerberg. But you won't get a free pass on the talents you have, and you'll have to develop those talents into proficiencies and expertise.
Having a talent indicates your potential. You'll only be successful if you can turn that talent into a skill - and that takes effort.
