Every living organism in the world strives to find happiness; at any cost. We all know that ‘happiness’ is a state of mind that is achieved by individuals when they are satisfied by a particular achievement or emotion. Success can’t be quantified and therefore, it becomes important for society to provide clear directives to people about how to achieve success.
Taking a page out of society’s book of what success truly is, I’d like to talk about a particular aspect of this clearly defined ‘success’ – a glorious career.
We all know very talented people. The gifted athlete, rich business owner, articulate public speaker, class valedictorian are all examples of talented people. Likewise, we all know very talented people who are not always successful or do not achieve great things.
That makes it important for us think; is talent enough to get you the success you wish for? Or does it take much more than that?
Talent is a commodity that some say is God-given. If you don’t believe in God, please note that talent is something you’re born with.
We talk about the beauty and wonder of talent all the time. Whether it’s athletics, music, business, speaking, leadership or writing, there are individuals who seem to be born to do a certain thing. While there are a lot of people who might not be that talented, but they’ve made a mark in their respective fields through sheer hard work, a little luck and a lot of planning.
The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck.
At the end of the day, people are going to remember your achievements; not your potential. No one thinks of a person and goes ‘oh that person could have achieved a lot’. You think of people and their achievements. So, if you are banking on your potential because a certain comedian told you that marks don’t matter and all that sugar-coated bullshit; you’re harming yourself.
We have started molly-coddling youngsters with a narrative about the ‘true potential’ that lies inside every individual in society. We’re telling them that they are destined to do well by feeding the age-old adage of ‘life mein sab happy ending ho jaata hai‘.
I know that most of us like to believe that we’re special snowflakes. You might believe that you’ll do really well in psychology but to get into a decent college to study psychology, you’ll need to get good grades. It might not be fair but that’s the harsh reality. So does your talent in psychology matter if you don’t perform accordingly to get into a college to study the damn course? Absolutely not.
You might find it hard to digest but you need a whole lot of luck to achieve great things in life. Your excellence will often lead you to dead ends where the only way out will come up if you’re lucky enough. A lot of great inventions in the world were a result of a mistake. Without that stroke of luck, that achievement would have been impossible.
If you truly believe that you can make it big in any field of your choice without making contacts first, you are wrong. Networking is arguably one of the most important life-skill that an individual needs in this day and age. Your talent won’t do you any good if you can’t showcase it in front of those who matter.
Middle classes survive through lotteries; some fetch, some lose. But unfortunately, the net result we acquaint with is much more ladened towards pessimism.
Often, success is not an indication of talent or intelligence, but rather dedication, sincerity and hard work. This is especially true for different academic fields and industries in general. And believe me, in the end these traits do matter a lot in life.
In an ideal world, where we’d like to live, your talent is extremely important. But in the real world that isn’t about unicorns and rainbows, your talent is as useful as the last four letters in the word ‘queue’.
Featured Image: MorganMcKinley