{"id":16699,"date":"2021-03-17T16:19:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T10:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/?p=16699"},"modified":"2021-03-17T16:34:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:04:06","slug":"effort-vs-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/effort-vs-talent.html","title":{"rendered":"How Effort Crushes Talent When It Comes To Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"How<\/p>\n

You\u2019re no genius<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is what Angela Duckworth\u2019s father used to tell her as a child. When Angela did not score high enough to be taken into the \u2018gifted and talented\u2019 program at school, it only further cemented this belief of his.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at Angela now –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25ba She has a BA in Neurobiology from Harvard University<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25ba\u00a0As a \u2018Marshall Scholar\u2019 she earned her Master\u2019s in Neuroscience from Oxford.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25ba\u00a0She has received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25ba\u00a0She is currently a Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the biggest irony:<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2013, Dr. Angela Duckworth was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, which is also known as the \u201c<\/span>genius grant\u201d<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How did this happen?<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"Talent<\/p>\n

The answer lies in Dr. Duckworth\u2019s groundbreaking research on grit and its incredible power of driving people towards success.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTalent counts, but effort counts twice,\u201d she states, in her work, <\/span>Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

To understand what this means, take a look at this simple formula that she posits for success. Note the number of times talent occurs in the formula, and the number of times effort does.<\/span><\/p>\n

Talent x Effort = Skill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skill x Effort = Achievement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clearly, effort indeed contributes more to success than talent does. Thus, while Duckworth was not \u201cborn a genius\u201d, her relentless efforts were enough to <\/span>turn her into one<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effort vs. Talent<\/span><\/h2>\n

Still skeptical? Well, in that case, it might help to redefine what talent and effort mean to us. All our lives, we are taught that \u2018talent\u2019 is the natural capabilities of a person. We were made to believe that if a person is \u2018talented\u2019 at Mathematics, they are automatically \u2018good\u2019 at it. Dr. Angela Duckworth, however, turns this definition upside down.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"talent<\/p>\n

According to her, \u2018talent\u2019 is merely the <\/span>speed <\/span><\/i>with which we attain our skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTalent is how quickly your skills improve when you invest effort into them. Achievement is what happens when you take those acquired skills and use them.\u201d – p.42, Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the Secrets to Success.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Effort\u2019, on the other hand, has to do with sustained persistence, a willingness to learn, to fail, and to grow in our talents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After examining the predictors of success amongst a diverse set of population, Duckworth concluded that talent was indeed an <\/span>inaccurate<\/span><\/i> predictor of success.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, does talent matter at all?<\/span><\/h2>\n

At this point, you may argue that talented people are always the ones that make it to the top. And this is true. Look at Sachin Tendulkar, The Beatles or Meryl Streep. No one can deny their talent.<\/span><\/p>\n

And Duckworth doesn\u2019t deny the existence of talent either.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that talent doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d she states. <\/span><\/p>\n

I believe that talent exists\u2026 But whatever your talent, you have to <\/span>engage to realise that talent.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, during her research, Duckworth made one major discovery, that talent is either <\/span>unrelated or inversely related<\/span><\/i> to the grit that one possesses. Simply put, possessing talent can sometimes lead to the person becoming more laid-back and result in them not investing as much time and effort into their pursuits as they would otherwise.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"talent<\/p>\n

With this in mind, it\u2019s that Sachin Tendulkar, The Beatles, and Meryl Streep didn\u2019t shoot to the top based only on talent. They went one step ahead. They engaged with their talent and put in the effort required to <\/span>turn their talent into achievement<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Effort: The not-so-secret ingredient for success<\/span><\/h2>\n

Alright. So, maybe talent isn\u2019t everything. But how do we put in the effort when we feel like we just <\/span>don\u2019t have the talent or skills to achieve something?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The key to this, according to Duckworth, is the \u201c<\/span>growth mindset<\/span><\/a>\u201d that has been advocated by Stanford University psychologists, Dr. Carol S Dweck and Dr. Gregory M Walton. People with growth mindsets are learners. They believe that failure isn\u2019t a permanent condition. They can get back up and start all over again, <\/span>with lessons learned<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides\u00a0 the growth mindset, Duckworth also stands by <\/span>skill development<\/span><\/i> for success. Here, she elaborates that developing expertise in an area begins with the discovery of something that merely sparks an interest within us. Once we have \u2018discovered\u2019 this interest area, the fun or hard work begins. This is the development phase, where we must deliberately <\/span>practise <\/span><\/i>our skills by honing them, and through trial and error, achieve success.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Over<\/p>\n

\u201cOver time, we learn life lessons that we don\u2019t forget,\u201d states Angela Duckworth in her book.<\/span><\/p>\n

We adapt in response to the growing demands of our circumstances. Eventually, new ways of thinking and acting become habitual. <\/span>There comes a day when we can hardly remember our immature former selves<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are you looking to build High Performing Resilient Organisations? We can help. Feel free to get in touch<\/a> for assistance in building a culture of positivity and high performance.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019re no genius This is what Angela Duckworth\u2019s father used to tell her as a child. When Angela did not score high enough to be taken into the \u2018gifted and talented\u2019 program at school, it only further cemented this belief of his. Take a look at Angela now –\u00a0 \u25ba She has a BA in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confidence","category-self-growth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yourdost.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}