Several years ago I came across a quote in Tim Tebow’s biography, Through My Eyes, that I have oft-quoted during piano lessons with certain students:
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.”
That is the heart of the message that I took away from the second installment of an article called “The Art of Possibility” by Steven Brundage in the June/July issue of American Music Teacher. He presents some fascinating quotes and research that address the ongoing debate of talent versus expert skill. Perhaps most fascinating is the experiment conducted by Laszlo Polgar with his three daughters to see if he could train them to become expert chess players. His experiment produced incredible results, with all three daughters becoming world-renowned chess players.
Brundage goes on to observe:
“Most children, and adults for that matter, never dedicate themselves to skill development with the same deliberateness, methodology and guidance of child prodigies because, in most cases, they lack the opportunity, guidance or motivation.”
I was greatly encouraged by his recounting of numerous worthy achievements by men and women later in life who devoted themselves to the pursuit of various skills and then reached a high level of expertise (there is hope for us at any age if we apply ourselves and work hard!). His final paragraph includes this point:
“…there are those lacking talent who will achieve greatness because they possess more than the proper training and opportunity. They possess the burning fire of motivation and the determination to spend time and energy pursuing skill development without short cuts.”
This reminds me of a proverb that reveals the same truth:
“Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kinds; he will not stand before obscure men.” Proverbs 22:29
In a video our family recently watched by Dr. Jeff Myers, he issues a similar challenge to young people, noting that:
“Talent is distressingly common, but hard work is extremely rare.”
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