We use the example of Yuna Kim to illustrate that talent and effort are not opposites, but rather complementary, and emphasize that effort is part of talent. This leads to the conclusion that success is achieved through hard work that unleashes latent talent.
People often say that talent is innate and effort is acquired. This perception makes us think of talent and effort as contrasting concepts. However, it’s worth considering whether this dichotomy is accurate. Let’s look at the dictionary definitions of talent and effort. Talent is the skill and ability required to do something. Effort, on the other hand, refers to the effort you put in to accomplish a goal. This begs the question. Are the skills and abilities needed to do something necessarily innate? Or can they also be acquired?
To answer this question, consider the example of South Korean figure skater Yuna Kim. The talents she needed to become one of the best in the world at figure skating include quickness, strength, balance, and courage. In addition, Yuna Kim would have had to be focused, persistent, and passionate. Now, let’s assume that talent is innate and effort is acquired. If Yuna Kim relied solely on her natural talent and didn’t put in the effort, would she have been able to reach the top of the world? And no matter how hard she worked, would she have been able to achieve the same results if she had no natural talent at all? In other words, talent and effort are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary.
Can we exclude factors such as focus, persistence, and passion that Yuna Kim demonstrated from the category of talent and ability? Not really. These are all skills and abilities that Yuna Kim needed to become one of the best figure skaters in the world. In this context, the effort itself is the talent, so the assumption that talent is innate and effort is acquired is itself contradictory.
As we saw above, effort is also a talent. We can’t conclude that one is more important or superior to the other. The debate between effort and talent is meaningless. Furthermore, comparing the concepts of effort and talent on an equal footing is also misleading. Hard work is part of talent, and it’s also a tool for unlocking latent talent.
Let’s go back to the example of Yuna Kim. Yuna Kim could have potentially possessed many different talents: focus, persistence, passion, quickness, strength, balance, and courage. The talent of hard work, which consists of focus, persistence, and passion, unleashed the latent talents of quickness, strength, balance, and courage. This is a case of one talent unleashing another. So where does the talent of focus, persistence, and passionate effort come from? The ability to focus on skating practice comes from persistence, and persistence comes from passion for skating. And passion is another of Yuna Kim’s talents. In the end, hard work is not just a single concept, but a collection of talents, and the talent of hard work adds to other latent talents.
The degree to which the latent talent is expressed depends on the level of effort. Malcolm Timothy Gladwell’s 10,000-hour rule explains this well. It can be interpreted to mean that if you put in 10,000 hours of effort, you’ll unleash a lot of latent talent. Also, Thomas Alva Edison’s quote, “Without 1% inspiration (talent), 99% effort will not succeed.” can be understood in a new light. It means that no matter how hard you try, if you don’t have the latent talent to unleash it, you won’t be able to achieve your goals.
Finally, a study by Michigan State University professor David Zach Hambrick and his team supports this interpretation. Success requires both latent talent and hard work to manifest that talent. However, the importance of effort and talent may vary depending on the field.
In conclusion, effort is both an aggregate of talent and a tool for unleashing latent talent. The degree of effort you put in will determine the degree to which your latent talent is expressed. Therefore, you can’t succeed with effort alone, and you can’t succeed with latent talent alone. In order to succeed, you need to develop the talent of persistence through the talent of passion, develop the talent of focus through the talent of persistence, and constantly find and develop your latent talents. If this process stops, the latent talent will eventually not become your own, and you will continue to stagnate.
