<ol> <li>"You're so born with it!"</li> <li>"You have a gift!"</li> <li>"It comes just so naturally to you!"</li> </ol> <p>If someone had told Tiger Woods at a young age that he was born to play golf, that dude would've sucked big-time as an adult.</p> <h2>Prodigies are made -- not born.</h2> <p>The people you see on American Idol?</p> <ul> <li>They don't have natural singing abilities.</li> <li>Instead, they spent 9869584795409 hours practicing their singing chops.</li> </ul> <p>The people you know as awesome mathematical geniuses?</p> <ul> <li>No natural talent.</li> <li>Just spent a tremendous more number of hours studying than the normal Joe.</li> </ul> <p>No shortcuts exist to achieving greatness; it just takes strenuous hours of putting in your time to become better at what you do.</p> <h2>The Extremely Talented</h2> <p>When you tell the extremely talented that they're born with their natural gifts, what happens?</p> <ul> <li>They stop practicing.</li> <li>They stop getting better.</li> <li>Instead, they rely on "what they were born with."</li> </ul> <p><strong>Result: The Suck.</strong></p> <p><strong>Resting on your laurels destroys your greater potential.</strong></p> <h2>Keep improving.</h2> 2008-04-18T14:12:00+10:00 true 631 how-do-you-treat-talent 0 2009-11-07T15:45:47+10:00