by Katarzyna Radzka

Created on: May 20, 2009

While it's true that some people are born with talent, just look at Beethoven, Tiger Woods or Donald Trump. Music, golf and marketing. These people are talented in what they do but is that enough?

On the other side of the spectrum is the hard workers. People who slave away day and night to achieve some level of success, sometimes small, sometimes enormous, sometimes they give up before they can celebrate their achievements.

Talent is thought of as having a natural ability in a specific area, like sport for example or painting with water colours. Some people can do this naturally without ever having taken a lesson in their life. However, this alone is not enough to result in success.

Hard work is taking that talent or finding it within ourselves through sweat, tears and pain. It's perseverance even in the face of failure. It's pushing harder even when the odds are not our side. It's continuing when we're trying to paddle through swampy terrain, when the end in sight is only a speck in the distance. But we go on because that is the only thing that we know what to do.

Take a marathon runner for an example. He wasn't born a runner. He or she may have never ran further then to the corner store. Over time they develop a taste for running, they win a couple of races at school and continue running through college. They realise they can run, they're even good at it. They set a goal for themselves. To run the full marathon. Every day they train, running both short and long distances, each week improving on their time, increasing their pace and running better each week. Marathon season comes and they start in the race. Finally they cross the finish line, they have come in the top ten. Is this talent or hard work?

A child paints like an artist. It's what she loves to do, her parents can not keep up with the easels and paints. She grows older and decides to make a living from her paintings. She begins to advertise her work in the newspapers, on the Internet, in art galleries. Months pass, years even and nothing. Then one day, someone notices her paintings, sells them and she becomes a well known artist. Is it talent that led to her success or hard work?

Talent and hard work go hand in hand. You don't have to have talent to succeed, but you have to work hard. Even a talented person without putting in some sweat and tears is not likely to succeed. Talent simply gives you one step ahead of the crowd. Many successful people started out with hard work, some had talent while many found it along their journey.

The path to success is knowing what you want. It's having a clear view of what success means to you and working towards achieving it. Both talent and hard work are paths to success, it's up to you which one to choose. If you're determined and are willing to persevere, you will succeed.

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