Talent - Either You Have It Or Not

[jfdavis58]

Nonsense.

A fellow once told me "You do what you want to do". Want here being equal to Like.

Another said "if you want to make money, make something".

So, I say it follows then that Talent, wherever it comes from is simply being able to find something you like to do that makes money.

Edited February 17, 2015 by jfdavis58

[stelhrse]

Thanks very much to all who offered comments. All good advise and thoughts for sure. This is why this is such an awesome forum. I will take the motivation received from the insight here and march ahead. Thanks again.

[Dwight]

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, . . . I think it needs to be said that talent is first and foremost: an inherent trait / attitude / ability / or edge of some kind that one person has, . . . and not everyone else does, . . . nor can they all ever get it.

There is a young man in England who can hear a tune, . . . play it on the piano letter perfect, . . . in any of a multitude of different styles, . . . has been on 60 minutes several times, . . . but cannot remember to eat, shower, or change clothes. Music he has, . . . social order he does not.

So are ALL other talents to one degree or another.

I have no talent for decorating, tooling, stamping leather, . . . nada, zero, zilch, none whatsoever. I can fake it enough to get a piece passed, . . . because I can do the mechanical part of making, lacing, sewing, stitching, dyeing, finishing, etc.

I make holsters, belts, knife sheaths, and an occasional purse or billfold, . . . and they are Aunt Jemima plain, . . . nuttin' fancy.

I said all that to get to this point: everyone has talents, . . . the real trick is finding where they are, . . . unlocking them, . . . using them. As an example, . . . I have 3 brothers, . . . all raised in the same household, . . . ate the same food, . . . drank the same water, . . . got whooped with the same switch from time to time.

Two of us are very comfortable working on anything mechanical. Myself and another are comfortable working on plumbing and electric. The youngest can do numbers in his head like it is a 40 column spreadsheet, . . . us other three can forget our house numbers. We've all taken different paths because we found out long ago what our talents were, . . . and were not. And that is a shout out to our mother, . . . who encouraged us to try all sorts of things, . . . find out what we could or could not do.

Bottom line, . . . find out where your inherent, God given talents lay, . . . business, mechanical, people skills (where would Odufus be if he could not manipulate people????), . . . maybe in the outdoors with animals, or creating things. Nourish them as you find them, . . . encourage them, . . . stretch them to their limits. You'll be glad you did.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Calait]

We are all given some talent, while there may be no artist in many of us. We all do have the capacity to learn, and make the life of those around us better is something we all can do. Just my humble opinion. I am learning to stamp leather myself at this time, Using my swivel knife is almost a laughable effort, but I am practicing and trying. However, continue to learn and see were you can go.

[NavyVet]

Art, talent, ability, capability, qualification. When looking directly at artistic talent as a mode of expression it denotes a means of expression that no one else has done EXACTLY what you have in the way that you have expressed it.

If you do a "Sheridan Style" anything. You have copied someone else. All you have shown is GREAT SKILL, even if your work is flawless.

We copy and emulate the best in others to develop ourselves. Then we can differentiate from the rest by making something unique.

Tim

[MonicaJacobson]

Except for people who draw their own Sheridan Style designs. Blows my mind.

[JAZZMAN]

For those who are interested in the 10,000 hour rule, there is a very interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell called outliers where he sudies many of the high achievers in the world(Beatles, Bill Gates, etc). It really is an interesting book and i highly recommend it to any one interested in what makes some achieve more than others.This is a subject i have spent a lot of time researching, i have been a musician /jazz guitar player since i was eight years old , i have been very dedicated to this to the point that when i was still working i would get up at five in the morning so as to be able to get a couple of hours practice in before work, when i got home from work i would try to get another four hours of study on the evening, i did this for over forty years. What always used to make me smile to myself was when people have said to me they would love to play guitar like i could but they do not have any natural musical ability, well i believe i also do not posess any inbuilt ability or special talent , i have merely put in more work than a lot of other people, in fact i think considering how hard i have had to work at it just to reach a level of competent musician i might actually be a bit slower in learning than some other people. So to sum up i believe that most high level talent is as i think Edison said is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration, in my own opinion of course. Due to a disability i am now unable to play guitar in a group and hae recently taken up leatherworking to fulfill my inbuilt urge to create, and i hope to apply the same dedication to my new found craft as i have to music.

Edited March 6, 2015 by JAZZMAN

[Calait]

Great point Jazzman. Sorry for the forced change. I pray yoou grow to love your leather work and surpass yoour. Musical ability.

[NavyVet]

Due to a disability i am now unable to play guitar in a group and hae recently taken up leatherworking to fulfill my inbuilt urge to create, and i hope to apply the same dedication to my new found craft as i have to music.

Creativity is an inspiration of the heart and can never be lost. Changing your focus only moves you to make new connections from the visual (SEEN) to the hands of creation. Tim

[JAZZMAN]

Thank you for your kind words calait and navyvet, i belive that creating things is a basic human instinct which might even come from a survival point of viewi, i also think it is in danger of being lost as many of the handcraft type skills are slowly dissapearing ,Take care my friends.Peace.