Why the Most Talented Individuals are Rarely the Most Successful
Are the most successful people in society the most talented?
Do they work the hardest?
Or is it that they simply outshine the rest of us in sheer innate talent?
While this question will undoubtedly be up for debate for years to come, one thing that is without a doubt is that not all successful people are equally talented. Not only are they not equally talented, but the percentage of them being extraordinarily talented is said to be smaller than we think.
Now, many people who are “on top” will more than likely push back on the notion that they lack a high degree of talent or skill. So before things get out of hand with the remainder of this article, let’s give some credit to where credit may be due.
Yes.
There are talented individuals who are highly successful because of their immense level of innate and developed skills. These individuals would more than likely succeed against anyone who claimed to possess the same gifting.
A natural-born singer is a natural-born singer. It’s hard to deny hearing a beautiful note even if you tried.
Yet, even a natural-born singer is not guaranteed exponential success simply due to their innate talent alone. We’ve seen this play out time and time again in the countless stories of individuals we both personally know and publicly hear about.
So why do we keep elevating talent as the sure-fire ticket?
The Work Hard Mantra
For those of us who know that talent alone won’t secure a spot in the prosperity palace, we often resort to the second element which is “hard work.”
You’ve heard the saying:
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Huh?
Each time I hear this cliche, I think to myself “Get out of here!” This couldn’t be further from the truth.
A talented person could work just as hard as a non-talented person yet still not get the “win” they deserve.
We have got to dismantle repeating this to young children and our fellow person as a motivating mantra to get them to simply “try harder.”
Sometimes the underdog just wins.
Sometimes the talented person just gets shafted.
Sometimes the formula for success includes a person who isn’t talented and doesn’t deserve it.
The reasons for this are plenty as there is a myriad of complex factors that influence one’s victory. Take the environment. Or resources. Or any of the below contributors:
- Time commitment
- Health
- Personality
- Moral Values
- Body Image
- Race
- Political influences
- Social climate
The list goes on. Not only does it go on, but it can spiral out into more subsequent categories that feed off the other.
This, therefore, proves that the formula of hard work plus talent does not predominantly (and always) equal success.
The Law of the Vital Few
So what then is the prevailing outcome?
If hard work and talent are not enough to succeed then what is and who does?
After reading a blog entitled: The Role of Luck in Life Success Is Far Greater Than We Realized I found a bread crumb to what could be an answer. The writer of the post presented a concept called the Pareto principle or the (80/20) rule.
Most of us have heard this ratio before in some form or fashion. Whether that be in our eating habits or relationship life.
Yet this article applied the percentage rule to represent the proportion of people who achieve (a high level of) success in life. With 20 being the percent of people who succeed and 80 (the large majority) being those who do not.
Numbers.
That’s right — sheer numbers.
It is simply a fact that not everyone will make it to “the top” based on mere probability or “chance.”
Some would call it luck. Others Divine Will. However, you like to ascribe the axiom is your choice.
It’s Still Really Up to You
Despite this conclusion of sorts it is important to point out one key assertion.
Success is relative.
Yet, even though we say this we often internally cringe at its’ euphemism.
While we know that many people will be successful in life to some degree, I think we would all be kidding ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge the human desire to receive a greater level of recognition and reward for our talents.
We get mad when we see our colleagues get that job/position that we feel they aren’t talented enough for. We beat ourselves up wondering what we are doing “wrong” because we are not “successful” enough in proportion to the talent we believe we have. We can’t listen to enough motivational Youtube clips or “How I” success stories to find how to get “there.”
So we fall back to the tried and true culturally infused thought pattern that we didn’t work hard enough or we just weren’t talented enough.
But what if we didn’t resolve to this thinking?
What if we didn’t take the outcomes of our successes and use them as accusations against our effort and our identity.
What if we really acknowledge that we are trying?
That we are talented?
But based on the numbers and a multitude of factors that may not align in our favor that we are where we are.
And we can still find rest and peace in the life that we do have.
A life that very well could be successfully talented in our book.
