Natural talent can be both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, things that come natural to us can make success almost effortless - it takes little effort to be good at something.
On the other, if one solely relies on their talent alone, failure becomes that much harder to deal with.
In other words, talent has the ability to breed entitlement.
When we get good at something, it is hard to picture failure.
We become reliant on our talents and believe that our talents will be enough to make us successful long into the future.
While part of this is true, success isn't so black and white.
Our natural God given talents will only take us so far when it comes to being successful in anything, the rest is up to the amount of effort we are willing to put in to leverage our talents to get the results we want in life.
Hard work will always beat out talent if talent fails to work hard.
Talent breeds entitlement, while hard work and consistent dedicated effort towards something breeds qualities of confidence, discipline, and persistence.
Talent is something we are born with, while a genuine work ethic is something we have to learn, develop, and harness.
Talent is a natural strength, while hard work gives us the power to turn our weaknesses into strengths.
See where I am going with this?
It is important to recognize our natural strengths, but if we fail to harness them, even amidst failure, we are never truly going to get the results we are looking for.
Developing a capacity to work hard is how we are able to overcome failure because like talent, a good work ethic is something we can choose to rely on when things get hard.
If we are confident in our work ethic, then we inherently know that whatever hardships we are facing can be dealt with so that we can continue to pursue our mission.
Failure is always going to give us the sense that we are not good enough.
Many times people will pour what they feel like was everything they had into something and still come up short of their desired outcome.
But when it comes to developing and harnessing a good work ethic, it is to be applied into everything that we do.
It is only when we apply a hard work ethic to everything that we do that failure becomes just a part of the process.
If we only apply hard work to things we are comfortable and familiar with, then we never build the confidence needed to excel in other areas of our lives.
Talent alone is never going to be enough to be successful in the long term.
However, when talent works hard, the possibilities are endless.