By Isaiah O’Connor

In my previous posts I hinted at some research that showed that talent was not necessarily something you were born with, but something you could develop over time.  Now I think we are all born with natural likes and affinities for different things. For example, My brother loves cars, started building a kit car at 16, got a fancy car at 18, etc. as for myself, I did not bother to get even get my license until I was 22 years old. I preferred computers, science, history and such, and that was my focus.  So likes and dislikes are a factor. Another factor is, of course, physical ability. A person who is taller is more likely to have an advantage in basketball, a person with a nice voice could become a great musical artist, etc.

But is that all there is to it? If you are not born with some amazing innate natural ability are you talentless, and consigned to a life working for someone else?  I do not and have never believed this. I think the choices we make in life hold more weight than any natural ability. For example, you could have a great singing voice, but not the personality to be a star performer. 

If you have heard of the Ylvis brothers (Of “What does the fox say?” fame) they are incredible vocalists and entertainers. The group is the two older brother Vegard and Bård Ylvis Ylvisåker. They happen to have a younger brother named Bjarte who is less well known. Turns out the guy actually has a decent singing voice, as he made a video with his brothers titled “I will never be a star.” He talks about not having the ability to perform in front of an audience, and thus he will never be a star. So just raw talent is not enough either. 

But what if you feel you have been born without any natural abilities, or your interests lie in another direction than your skillset. For example, you happen to be very adept at mathematics, but you are bored with them and do not want to work with them in a professional capacity, and would rather, say work in an artistic field instead.  Well, I believe there is hope for you.

There is a psychologist named László Polgár, who has three daughters. He thought that talent could be a learned behavior, and did an experiment with his three girls to prove this point. The experiment ran in this manner. He simply taught them chess and focused on it when they were growing up. They all became incredible at chess. 

How incredible? These are just a few highlights.

Susan the oldest became the third female Grandmaster in history winning multiple titles and gold medals. 

Sofia, the second-born was the underachiever of the girls. At the age of 14, she stunned the chess world by her performance in a tournament in Rome, which became known as the "Sack of Rome". She won the tournament, which included several strong Grandmasters, with a score of 8½ out of 9

Then you have Judit she achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former World Champion Bobby Fischer.

So this, of course, begs the question, did they have a natural talent, or did they develop this skill from training. From all the research I read, it was the training that did it as well as an interest in chess.  You can read more details Here at Psychology Today.

So what does this mean for us as entrepreneurs? It means there is hope for every one of us to develop our skills out. Yes, this study was from childhood and there are a lot of other factors involved, but I think the overall premise holds true.  As Susan put it

"My father believes that innate talent is nothing, that [success] is 99 percent hard work, I agree with him."-Susan Polgar

I would have to agree. This is good news. This means that if you are not afraid of hard work, and a bit of sweat you can achieve great things. This also means as your business develops you will find yourself having to wear many hats, and you will find you become more and more proficient at them as you go.  I will be writing a full post on this very topic in the future.

I am going to leave off with a quote from one of my early inspirations in my life.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Entrepreneur 
Isaiah O’Connor. 

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