Which One Is More Important in Life: Talent or Luck?
On the importance of asking good questions.
Which one is best: the number 7 or the color blue?
Pointless question? Sure. And, while the “talent vs luck” one is not as pointless, it is still a bad question.
Why is the “talent vs luck” a bad question?
Because it misses the mark. Terribly.
How? By failing to mention effort. Yes, good and old, unsexy effort. I’m talking hard work, man.
In case you’re wondering, I heard this talent vs luck question on the radio and, lemme tell ya, the debate was fierce. “Luck doesn’t exist!”, said a girl. “Talent, of course, because to be an engineer you need talent!”, said a dude.
Before we proceed, take note: luck does exist and no, you don’t need talent to be an engineer.
I was there listening, hoping somebody would say “Guys, aren’t we forgetting about work, effort, discipline?”
Sadly, nobody said so, and all those people wasted precious time on a badly formulated question.
To better illustrate my point, let me ask you another bad question: which one is more important in a partner: the looks or the money?
See? Even though you may argue that looks and money matter, the question leaves out the person’s character!
“Intelligence is knowing the right answers. Wisdom is asking the right questions.” — Unknown
The right question, please.
Here it goes:
Which one is more important in life: talent, luck or effort?
There! This is wisdom at its best.
And now that the right question is posed, let’s switch gears to intelligence and answer it.
So, smart ass, which one is better?
Effort. By far.
The willingness to put in the work trumps talent every time. If I train diligently I can become a pretty good soccer player. If Lionel Messi had been born in Argentina but were a lazy dude, Argentina probably would not have won the last World Cup.
Would I ever be as good as Messi? Probably not, and that’s why talent still counts, but only when we are talking about separating the excellent ones from the gods. So, yes, you can become excellent even if you have no talent. All you need is to work hard.
And what about luck? Very important too, but out of our control. Messi was lucky to be born in a country that loves soccer. Had he been born in Mongolia, the story would have been completely different.
So, talent without effort is wasted potential. And talent without luck is, well, just bad luck.
“Talent is overrated.” — Geoff Colvin.
So, let lady luck with her caprices.
Forget talent.
Embrace effort.
And please don’t forget to ask the right questions.
