What is a Talent? It sounds simple. But it's not...

So I'm actually extremely tired right now and I've been chasing a very cranky 3-year-old all day (yaaaay...), but I've been chewing on this post for a few weeks now so I'm going to go ahead and crank it out.  Just don't expect it to be as beautiful and articulately written as all my other posts (cough, cough...).

I've been thinking about talents a lot lately.  We all have them; we all have many of them.  And, generally, we all cultivate them as best we can once they're recognized.  But I look back on my life and I can think of a lot of things I was really good at that just didn't really stick.  For example, I played the flute starting in elementary school and up through freshman year of college.  I started young so I was a step-ahead of my peers.  I got a lot of recognition - first chair placement, solos, lots of pats on the back.  And that's really what drove me to continue playing for so long.

Now I wonder: was playing the flute actually a talent, or simply something I got ahead on and continued with because of all the recognition I received?  When I hit college and plopped my butt into 13th chair for the first time, I realized I didn't really like it all that much.  It wasn't worth it to me to put in the effort to get back to the top again.  I just didn't enjoy it enough.

So what part does recognition play into what becomes a talent?  Does it take the front seat or the back seat?  And does loving what you do have any part to play in something being a talent?

Is a true talent simply the one that you love to do even if nobody else cares?  Or is even the opposite possible - is it possible to be extremely talented at something you HATE doing?  In either one of these cases, we could all be potentially missing out on offering some major services to society.

I guess I could break "talent" down into three pieces:
a) you're good at it
b) you love it
c) you get recognition for it

I've always assumed that all three go together.  But what if we mixed these up a bit?  I'm going to leave number 1 alone because it's assumed that if it's a talent that you're good at it.  But could these scenarios be possible:

a) you're good at it
b) you love it
c) you get no recognition for it

a) you're good at it
b) you hate it
c) you get recognition for it

a) you're good at it
b) you hate it
c) you get no recognition for it

Or are they three separate pieces entirely?  A talent is something you're good at, you may or may not like doing it, and if you get recognition for it, you're likely to pursue it despite the status of the first two factors.  And if you love it enough, you're likely to pursue it until you receive the recognition you merit IF it's truly a talent.  If it's not a talent, you will not receive the recognition.


I think that if the second and fourth scenario are going to be true there has to be an assumption that the lack of recognition is temporary.  If you truly are talented at something, eventually recognition has to come (usually after a lot of sweat and tears) or it can't be truly considered a talent.

I would throw out the possibility that we could have a talent and never get any recognition for it, but a talent is usually defined by it's use to society.  In other words, if you hear someone playing a squeeky off-pitch violin after 10 years of practice and performing, you would say they are not talented but that's only defined by our society's standards of what's considered "music".  If our definition were different (and our 7-key scale were different), this player could be considered one of the greatest of all time.  So rather than go around in circles about what's considered talent, I'm just going to skip that all together and assume that "talent" means a general recognition by others in society that someone is exceptionally good at something that is considered valuable.

Discuss.

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Marketing FAIL!!

For those of you who haven't seen this on my facebook page, I think this is absolutely hilarious.  I'm sure Blackjack Pizza didn't plan it this way, but they really should have thought twice before leaving this as-is.  I drive by this everyday and I think to myself, "That makes SO much sense".  Which for Blackjack, is a very bad thing.

Need I say more?  This one is pretty self-explanatory.  Feel free to share and comment!!