Talent or Skill: What Matters More?

Dear Friend,

What do you think matters more – TALENT or SKILL?

Talent and skill sound like they are one and the same thing.
But they are not.
And that’s a good thing.

Here’s how Seth Godin differentiates the two in his book Practice:

”Talent is something we’re born with:
it’s in our DNA, a magical alignment of gifts.
But skill?
Skill is earned.
It’s learned and practiced and hard-won.”

In other words, not everyone is talented.
I don’t consider myself to be particularly talented.
And that’s OK, because skill is available to anyone who is willing to put in the hard work.

Angela Duckworth, in her great book GRIT, describes the difference between Talent and Skill with these 2 equations.

 Talent x Effort = Skill
 Skill x Effort = Achievement.

As you can see from Duckworth’s equations, effort features twice.

First, effort helps you build a skill.

And, then effort helps you leverage those skills to achieve more.

Moral of the story:

 Find something you naturally enjoy or have even a small amount of talent in.
 And then put in the effort to turn it into a skill.
 Now, keep building that skill, and what you then have is a set of achievements you can be truly proud of!

Remember, effort counts twice! 🙂