Perseverance Is More Important Than Innate Talent for Success

There are many tools to help one throughout life, but the leading tool is perseverance. Perseverance is a vital tool that can help anyone build skills that allow one to succeed in life. In an article, two students wanted a career in acting. The student that was more involved and was picked to volunteer to help actors will definitely earn a better career, as perseverance is key to unlocking the potential of hard work, responsibility, and exceptional work ethics. For instance, the first student showed huge signs of laziness and procrastination while the other student will most likely succeed in life due to not giving up. According to the information in the article, the student with talent was the person that did not take the acting job.

This conveys the fact that talent can sometimes make one lazy, as it makes people feel that they don't need to practice because they are already “good” at it. The student that was trying to pass the audition may have failed, but the student then talks to the teachers, and by revealing whatever skills he had, he became a well-rounded volunteer for the season.

Additionally, the student that volunteered will construct much more skill than the other student. By volunteering, skills like improved social habits and exceptional work ethics are developed. He also could make new friends that will help him develop more confidence throughout next season, giving him an improved chance of obtaining a spot in the acting program. The reason that these great skills are built is due to the 10,000-hour rule. To specify, the 10,000-hour rule measures someone's success at anything, and the student that volunteered is gaining more hours than the "innately" talented one. The 10,000-hour rule also teaches another thing, that "achievement is talent plus preparation" (Gladwell).

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Even though the student may not have the talent for something, he practiced an exorbitant amount, leading the student to achieve his goals. That achievement also can help someone's self-esteem, and build confidence for that person, while preparing that person for the future. To illustrate, an experiment was run on a group of people, and the people that followed the 10,000-hour rule "began to practice more than everyone else...sixteen hours a week by age fourteen, and up and up..."(Gladwell). The people that practiced also became "stars". Perseverance allowed these people to keep going and never give up, no matter the hardships.

Thus, perseverance is the key to becoming better at anything. Although this technique usually is the key to success, people may greatly benefit from the genes of their body, which gives them “innate talent”. Some may say that innate talent is as equally as important as perseverance, even though it is rare. For example, genes are the most common way to gain innate talent. An olympist named Thomas was able to beat the champion, Holm, in high jumping, due to Thomas' "long legs relative to his height" and his "[giant] Achilles tendon" (Epstein). Thomas even almost beat the record for highest jump, even though he had no practice.

The only reason this was possible was with the help of genes, so for the average person, perseverance is still the best way to become better at anything. Innate talent is a very rare thing to come by, so we can't rely on it to suddenly give us the skill we need for something. Furthermore, there are also cons to innate talent. People don't have the opportunity to learn the skills of responsibility and valuable work ethics, because the "innate talent" will help them excel in life. In general, the effects of perseverance can even surpass what many receive from innate talent.

Ultimately, perseverance is truly needed to help build skill in anything and to teach many different skills used in everyday lives. With perseverance comes the key to success in many different things, like working in an office, or trying to acquire a promotion, for example. Innate talent is useful, but it is also very tough to come by, as it requires a substantial of luck and excellent genes. The idea of hard work teaches people about the hardships in life and prepares them for upcoming obstacles.

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