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Aliya Zimmerman

Mr. Arnold

CCP English 1100

4 April 2018

What is more important: Talent or Hard Work?

What does it take to become successful? Hours of preparation, loss of sleep, hard

workouts and sore muscles, pushing the limits to achieve something once thought impossible? Or

can success come simply from getting lucky and obtaining a natural gift at birth? The debate

over the importance of talent and hard work has plagued society for years. Whether it be in

sports, school, or business, arguments for each side’s dominance seem to always fall at the

forefront. But, what really brings success lies in the hard work done for countless hours and the

grit it takes to achieve a goal. Hard work teaches life lessons that can come in handy in many

different situations, while talent can take a person only so far.

Natural talent comes as a blessing. Extra work becomes unnecessary, and hours of

practice seem useless. Some believe that “talent, in fact, is the world’s most valuable resource,

one no enterprise can move forward without” (“Why Talent is Now”). Business and teams

become successful when talented people join the group. Everything becomes much simpler when

all the necessary skills come easily. Talented people always seem to have the edge in school,

sports, or the workplace. Natural talent comes as a limited tool. Adam Ochstein, founder and

CEO of StratEx Partners, believes, “there is an absolute war for good talent” (“Why Talent is

Now”). These people aid teams because they know how to achieve success without much work.

Individuals who were not blessed with natural talent look to those who possess the trait and see

them as someone to look up to in term of skill. By seeing teammates already at the height of their
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success, it drives others to push themselves. So in a way, talented people help motivate

individuals when conventional methods do not. “Great talent is prepared for any situation. The

ability to think and act on the spot is a quality few people have” (“10 Things”) meaning when

these people come around they benefit the organization greatly. Another gift the talented people

can add to a team comes in difficult situations because they “aren’t afraid of pushing the

envelope to discover new ideas” (“10 Things”). Because natural talent does not present itself

everyday, the people who have this gift benefit teams greatly and help the team achieve success.

Talent seems magnificent, but it comes quickly and lasts for a short time only to fade

away; hard work takes patience but sticks with a person for the long run. Often talent appears to

“give [people] a head start, but hard work... finish[es] the race”(Inspiria). Talent is short term.

Sure, natural talent may give people a leg up at first, but if a talented person does not practice to

improve, then all their skills become wasted. This initial kick start might push those born with a

natural talent ahead of others. However, this head start will not remain over the course of a

lifetime. Natural talent remains exactly that, an inborn ability or gift that someone receives at

birth. It takes no work at all to become naturally talented at something. Compared to the hard

workers, naturally talented people struggle to improve because they do not have the desire to put

in the work. Hard work stays for the long run. Hard work comes from persistence one hundred

percent of the time. It becomes a character trait, part of one’s personality, an everyday mentality

that drives people to want to improve and continually better themselves. Once the quality of hard

work ingrains itself in a person, it never leaves and will always push through in the end to finish

the race. The ability to stay dedicated and always push the limits remains a quality that will last

for many years to come, giving hard workers the ability to improve, while people with natural

talent remain fixed. Talented people seem to struggle to grow both mentally in knowledge and
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experience as well as skills. Often gifted people tend to have a fixed mindset, while hard workers

tend to have a growth mindset. If a person has a fixed mindset they “believe their qualities are

fixed traits and therefore cannot change. These people document their intelligence and talents

rather than working to develop and improve them. They also believe that talent alone leads to

success, and effort is not required” (“Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset”). Many talented people

have a fixed mindset because they see no use in trying to better themselves because they have

never had to try to be the best. People with a growth mindset tend to believe “that their learning

and intelligence can grow with time and experience. When people believe they can get smarter,

they realize that their effort has an effect on their success, so they put in extra time, leading to

higher achievement” (“Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset”). People who believe in hard work

realize that putting in the extra effort will benefit them in the future, while naturally talented

individuals do not see the need to exhaust themselves in order to achieve greatness.

Planning for the future instead of only living in the present represents another difference

between the hard workers and naturally talented. In a TED Talk titled “Grit: The Power of

Passion and Perseverance,” Angela Lee Duckworth describes how hard work comes along for

the long run but talent disappears after a while. Instead of using the term “hard work.,” she

prefers the term “grit.” According to Duckworth, “grit is passion and perseverance for very long-

term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for

the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a

reality.” Grit and hard work go hand in hand but “talent doesn’t make you gritty” (“Grit”). The

gift of talent provides a temporary boost or head start, but if someone wants to truly achieve

greatness they must put in the hard work and adapt a growth mindset. Duckworth states it

perfectly when she says, “grit is living life like it’s a marathon not a sprint.” Success does not
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have to come down to finishing the fastest but often comes after countless hours of hard work,

just like a marathon.

Talented people have had many successes in their life, most of which have come without

any extra effort; while on the other hand, hard workers have had successes but also many failures

along the way. Talent does not teach people how to fail while hard work does, meaning people

with natural talent do not know how to cope with failure and the hard working people do. They

grow from their mistakes or disappointments and get back up to push for more. Linda Kaplan

Thaler, a successful CEO and author, thinks that each of the letters in the word GRIT mean

something different: Guts, Resilience, Initiative, and Tenacity. She believes that in order to

achieve success one must have grit which in turn means having these characteristics. She talks

about people who endured struggles early on have in life, but after many years become

enormously successful. She believes that “something about those challenges helps people later in

life when they reach difficulties or detours and where other people might give up, they are used

to working harder than the average person” (Kaplan-Thaler). They have the ability to push

through the barriers and achieve something once thought impossible. In the moment, it often

seems that nothing works and failures bury success, but after many trials the day will finally

come and victory feels much sweeter. In addition, hard workers acknowledge that they will fail

while naturally talented individuals only fear failure. Professional athletes know both success

and failure very well. Well-known NBA player Kevin Durant is no exception. His often quoted

saying, “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard” has proved itself in more than one

way. Yes, gifted people can hang at the top for a while, always seeming to perform well and take

the attention; however, soon enough they cannot keep up because they lack to knowledge to

work. After a while, they fail as the star player or student and now find themselves drowning at
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the bottom, because while the hard workers around them get better each day, they remain fixed

in their talent. When the going gets tough, talented people struggle because of their lack of

experience with failure. The kids who have always thrived in school now become lost and

frustrated because things become difficult. They now have to actually put in work to complete

tasks which become more laborious and time consuming. These kids do not know how to study

because they have never had to. Reversely, some people still manage to perform well in school

even though it has not come as easily or naturally, now begin to thrive. All their life they stay in

the background, quietly putting in the work to become successful and perform well in school.

When classes become considerably more difficult and students begin to take more honor and AP

classes, the once quiet, hard workers tend to find themselves now at the top of the class. They

have experience with failure and difficulties meaning they know how to put the work in and keep

trying even when the situation seem gloomy. The natural learners who find school easy now

begin to struggle because they do not know how to study and do not want to ask for help. In a

study done of violin students at a music academy, each player calculated how much time they

spend practicing. It was found that the ones deemed the “greatest” students practiced on average

over 2,000 hours more than “good” musicians (Hambrisk, Meinz). These results prove that “what

seems to separate the great from the merely good is hard work, not intellectual ability”

(Hambrick, Meinz). With hard work comes growth, but with natural talent comes stagnancy.

So many lessons present themselves from hard work that would never appear with talent.

Sure, some talented people work hard, but many do not. They have realized they can give

minimal effort and impressive outcomes will still follow. When it comes to sports, both talented

people and hard workers land themselves on teams. Hard workers become better team players

because of the lessons they have learned along the way. This does not have to just play a role in
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sports. Many teams in the workplace and even the classroom face the same problem, where the

naturally talented people do not seem to work well with others. While failure may come as a

natural occurrence, the naturally talented still lack the experience, but the hard workers have an

expert sense of how to overcome difficulties.

Hard workers are a coach's dream. Yes, they may mess up and not always achieve the

goal, but they have the willingness to listen and improve themselves for the good of the team.

Often “coaches would rather invest their time in a group of athletes who are motivated,

coachable, hard-working, disciplined and great teammates over a selfish group of talented

athletes” (Elmendorf). Hard work teaches patience and perseverance for a long term goal. It

teaches people to fail and the valuable lessons that come from those situations because

“nothing builds our strength like surviving difficulty” (“4 Important Lessons”). It allows people

to continually get out of their comfort zone and push themselves towards improvement. With

hard work comes confidence in competition because the work happened and everyone knows it,

especially the ones doing the work. One of the most important lessons learned through hard

work; humility. This quality allows people to compete without an ego and accept both victory

and defeat equally. “It’s through the difficult times in our life, that we are able to grow” (“4

Important Lessons”) which in turn improve both the individual and the people around them.

With all of these lessons, the hard workers learn how to become a better leader for their

teammates and leadership can take a person very, very far if used effectively and purposefully.

Hard workers make much better leaders than talented people because they have learned

all the life lessons along the way. Effective leadership drives teams to achieve great successes

much bigger than any individual could accomplish on their own. It comes from hours of practice

and dedication that only present themselves when enduring the tough grind. A hard worker
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knows humility and “a true leader is one who is humble enough to admit their mistakes”

(“Famous Leadership”) meaning they know when they failed and how to improve. Talented

people lack experience with failure and grit because they have not been along for the ride. They

have always coasted along rather than digging in and pushing through challenges. Since hard

workers know how to deal with failure, they can clearly lead a team through rough patches.

Leadership author and speaker John Maxwell believes, “a leader is one who knows the way, goes

the way, and shows the way” (“Famous Leadership”). When a team can go through failure

together and grow from the experience, it improves the team dynamic and brings lasting success.

Leaders who continually work hard know “nothing is going to be given to [them]...If [they] want

to be successful, be a self-made person and dedicate the time and work it takes to do something

epic”(“Leadership Lessons”). They possess the ability to encourage others to put in the work in

order to accomplish their goals.

The many lessons learned from hard work will never compete with the lessons learned

from just being naturally talented. Talent boosts a person for a short period but lacks lasting

effects. Hard work will last much longer than natural talent ever will, and the hard workers of

society will continue to improve themselves as well as the people around them.
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Works Cited

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2018, www.purposefairy.com/80874/4-important-lessons-you-learn-through-

difficult-times/. Accessed 3 Apr. 2018.

“10 Things Great Talent Always Does.” Entrepreneur, edited by Heather Huhman, 20

Aug. 2014, www.entrepreneur.com/article/236590. Accessed 2 Apr. 2018.

Elmendorf, Kyle Elmendorf. “Talent vs. Hard Work” [“National Federation of State High

School Associations”]. National Federation of State High School Associations, 29

Apr. 2016, www.nfhs.org/articles/talent-vs-attitude/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2018.

“Famous Leadership Quotes and Sayings.” Saying Images, 18 Oct. 2013,

sayingimages.com/famous-leadership-quotes-and-sayings/.

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www.developgoodhabits.com/fixed-mindset-vs-growth-mindset/. Accessed 1

Apr. 2018.

“Grit: The Power of Passion and Perserverence.” TED: Ideas worth sharing, Apr. 2013,

www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_pers

everance/transcript#t-173306. Accessed 1 Apr. 2018.

Hambrick, David Z., and Elizabeth J. Meinz. “Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters.” The New

York Times, 19 Nov. 2011. The New York Times,

www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/sorry-strivers-talent-

matters.html#p5. Accessed 22 Mar. 2018.

Inspiria. “What is more important Talent or Hard Work.” Inspiria, 23 Feb. 2015,

inspiria.edu.in/important-talent-hardwork/. Accessed 19 Mar. 2018.

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“Leadership Lessons: The Value of Hard Work.” Firehouse, edited by David Griffin, 1

Apr. 2017, www.firehouse.com/leadership/article/12304547/leadership-lessons-

the-value-of-hard-work. Accessed 1 Apr. 2018.

“Linda Kaplan Thaler-GRIT=Guts, Resilience, Initiative, Tenacity.” The Learning

Leader Show, episode 65, 21 Oct. 2015, learningleader.com/episode-065-linda-

kaplan-thaler-grit-guts-resilience-initiative-tenacity/.

“Why Talent is Now the World’s Most Valuable Resource.” Talent Economy, 2 Dec.

2016, www.talenteconomy.io/2016/12/02/talent-valuable-resource/. Accessed 2

Apr. 2018.