“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work,” (King). As Stephen King said, simply having a talent is commonplace in the world today. Whether it is incredible artistic ability, impressive grades, skill at a particular sport, or even kindness, every person has a feature that sets them apart. However, this natural ability does not guarantee success in any field. Ultimately, it is hard work that will lead you to a successful lifestyle, even with the advantages held by those with natural abilities. Developing skills in the areas that you have interest in will ensure your prosperity, regardless of where you start, as demonstrated by author J.K. Rowling and her characters in Harry Potter.
The best way to achieve success is by developing and expanding upon a particular skill. Benjamin Franklin wrote in Poor Richard’s Almanack, his collection of aphorisms, about this very topic: “Genius without education is like silver in the mine” (Franklin 147). If silver in a mine is not discovered, what good will it do anyone? In the same way, natural born genius will only benefit the world if it is continuously filled with knowledge and allowed to grow. If you fail to develop and improve any skills that you possess, regardless of what they are, it is as if they never existed. Other people are fortunate enough to have the same talents as you; if they put in more effort, they will excel. Even if someone does not
While a college education may have previously measured an individual’s success, much of the contemporary working world relies quite heavily upon skills, rather than a college degree (Reich par. 3). There are a lot of cases in which talent is all one needs. One’s talent then
The central focus of Geoff Colvin’s article, “What it Takes to be Great”, published in Fortune magazine, October 30, 2006 is research on things that makes a person great. Colvin notes that researchers were firstly curious why some people are able to go on improving while others can’t, that led to them to study elite performers. While many believe that having “innate” ability is the only key to achieving actually greatness in their field, the researches and Colvin conclude that greatness is achieved through “deliberate practice”. Deliberate practice involves: hours of consistent practice; the right way of course, continuously observing results, making changes, and having the right mindset. To support this argument Colvin shares information
No one is successful in life without opportunity and hard work: ““Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good” (Gladwell 42). The two coincide and are the keys to triumph. Even if a child is blessed to have a father who plays basketball professionally, the child will never succeed without hours of practice. It is those who seize opportunities that
Success is an effective word that society uses to define what set of achievements an individual creates for themselves. Based on society, success is one’s ability, intelligence, and how gifted an individual is. However, In “Outliers The Story of Success” Malcolm Gladwell argues that it does not matter if an individual is talented, smart, or driven, it does not mean that they will achieve up to their full abilities. Gladwell believes that the way to success is by an endless amount of practice, timing, and opportunity one is given and whether or not the individual sees and takes advantage of that opportunity.
Malcolm Gladwell argues that hard work and practice has more value than “innate talent” (Gladwell 1) in an excerpt from Chapter 2 “The 10,000-Hour Rule” of his novel Outliers: The Story of Success. Although he acknowledges that talent can be a factor in success, Gladwell believes that a person’s choice to work hard is what ultimately determines their achievements. To support this claim, he alludes to famous musicians and cites psychologists and other scientists to establish credibility, with the attempt to convince the audience that hard work overrules talent. His passage has a very clear and academic tone, making it easy for the audience to understand and not get confused.
Most people normally bring about personal qualities when they think for the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts the assumption of people through the book, Outliers. Gladwell insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the personal qualities. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion about hard working “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires”. Although people should work hard to seize the opportunity for success, success actually came from extrinsic factors because opportunity of relative age gives physical and emotional advantages through appropriate timing for birth, opportunity to raise under the concerted cultivation increases one’s practical intelligence, and opportunity to fulfill 10,000 hours of practice guarantees time to achieve success at every field.
Being great at something doesn’t guarantee success, and Gladwell states it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. That’s why it is imperative to choose something that can make one successful to ripen into an expert in. An example would be a person becoming an expert at folding clothes. Just because that person became an expert they are more than likely not going to become successful from that particular skill. An example Gladwell gave was the Beatles whom spent an extensive amount of hours practising at Hamburg. Their talents were undefined and crude before they would go on to play for many consecutive hours at Hamburg. After they received 10,000 hours of practice they initiated a long and successful journey that led to their
A similar notion is shown on Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent is overrated. He validates that success is a result of a focused effort to increase one’s knowledge. Stating that hard work can result in success and that inborn talent is only helpful when the student first start learning a new concept.
In the short story, 10,000 Hours, by Malcolm Gladwell, he starts his writing with the question of “Is there such thing as innate talent?” Meaning there obviously is such a thing as being born with some sort of talent in some field but that doesn’t mean someone can’t practice and work harder than those of such great talent. Gladwell presents a study in this story to show the possibilities of average or below people than those that were meant for the broadway lights right from the gate. The author’s purpose of this short writing is to show his audience that everyone has potential to be the best not by just natural talent, but hard work.
The last time I saw Charlie outside prison walls we were on the run. Charlie was on the run, not I, I just went along for the ride because he was my husband. Charlie was on parole, but he loved to drink his booze. In our state it's a violation to drink while on parole.
When you improve in any part during practice, you are a step closer to success. A comment on Reddit by username “drgk” commented, “ My hard work in school gave me the qualifications. My hard work in networking after my internship got me the job.” (Colvin, 11) Commoners such as drgk prove how hard work pays off with a better paying job and success in your profession.
Geoff Colvin’s ”What It Takes to be Great” was published in the magazine Fortune on October 30, 2006. The article was an argument that people aren’t just born great and that to achieve greatness you have to practice hard and have a good mindset. Researchers are trying to figure out the question of why,”Most people learn quickly at the beginning, then more slowly, and eventually stop.” The researchers are trying to find the answer to this question by studying great performers in many fields. The common belief of what makes someone great is that people have a natural talent and would be great from day one. Colvin argues many times throughout the text with phrases similar to the following,”It’s nice to believe that if you find the field where
People do not have the time to keep up with what you are doing. Quite honestly, people have difficulty keeping up with themselves much less anyone else. In fact, if you are not in their face on a constant basis, you will be largely forgotten. You complete your work with no problems. Everything gets done, and there are no problems. For this, you need to make sure that you are on their radar.
Why do people such as Beethoven (music), Rembrandt (artist), Mikhail Baryshnikov (ballet), Michael Jordan (sports), Martin Luther King, Jr. (orator), Marie Curie (scientist) and Ansel Adams (photography) have such distinction? These and others that hold similar status operate within their gifts and talents. How successful would Baryshnikov be as a scientist, Rembrandt as a musician or Beethoven as a basketball player? Surely, we can learn the skills of a field, even do a “good” job, but not an “excellent” job. We can paint by numbers to have a pretty picture, but it is not a work of art. Excellence occurs only when we operate in our gifts.
Jobs like for people to have good social skills. In order to be a good converser, people need to have a good amount of facts on various things to keep a conversation going for business. Staying mastered in one thing will not give you the ability to go to school and get a good job. Going to school, and getting a job will help you grow immensely. Some people may claim that they can learn further into some they have mastered, however people can only get so far into a subject until they start branching off into something completely different. There are some average people that have hopes and dreams to get out in the world. They hope to make it big time, and make a lot of money. To become famous, agents want people to be skilled in all kinds of areas. They like for people to be able to sing, dance, act, and even model. This will not allow a person to be mastered in one thing. They have to know everything on all topics in order to be chosen. The more people know, the more they grow. Being mastered in one specific area will not help you at all. Some adults say that they can grow in everyday life outside of what they are practicing on, however every day life can only give you but so much information. Half of the stuff that people hear on a daily basis