Develop A Talent

Mbhoni Manganyi

Everything happens for a reason: More so than you may realize. It can be the bigger contexts like why you seem to keep attracting the wrong relationship partners, why you always seem to have irresponsible and incompetent people as colleagues or why you’re low in self-confidence, to the subtler things like why you’re always late, why you emotionally eat, why you lack motivation or why you possess certain character traits. Part of the journey of personal growth and increasing one’s consciousness is to come to the awareness of the interconnectedness of everything in your life, from your past, what’s around you to yourself.

Many people often tell me I have a talent for writing and everything I’m doing. They say they can’t do the same for nuts. I take it as a compliment on my skill levels, but the statement itself a big generalization on what it took to get there. My writing skills came from endless hours of writing. My site building and web design skills came from self-learning since I was in secondary school (Shingwedzi). My analytical skills came from continuous problem solving and introspection in school and in leadership camps.

Was I born with those skills as a baby? No, of course not. Was there a time when I was a greenhorn in those skills? Yes, definitely. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’ve mastered those skills- While my ability to learn things fast has helped in the process, I wouldn’t have been able to develop those skills if not for the many hours put in learning. If I look at all the capable people I know around me, the same applies for them too. All their skills have been acquired through time, hard work and experience. I can’t think of anyone who is just “born” with their skills.

If you ever come across instances where people achieved certain results seemingly due to aptitude than hard work, there’s a good chance hard work has been invested. It’s natural to jump to a conclusion that people success without much work but closer examination usually reveals otherwise. So why do so many people have a notion of talent as something innate only in certain people (as opposed to everyone)?

I personally think it’s because people usually only see top performers when they have achieved a certain level of expertise. They don’t see endless hours invested before this expertise is attained. Without knowing that, it’s easy to jump to conclusions and assume they have always been this good all along. Another hypothesis I have is because the media tends to romanticize the successes of the “have’s” to increase their aspirational level, and one way they do that is by playing up on the successes rather than sharing how they got them.