Performance = Talent x Effort²

My life experience tells me hard work is more important than innate ability. My professional design experience validates it.

Photo by DiAnte Squire on Unsplash

When I was 15, I had a realisation. There were a handful of students in my class — the smart kids — who regularly performed at about the same level as I did. That year, many of those kids (who obviously had some innate ability for academic thinking) started falling behind. I realised it was because I was putting in more effort, while they were used to relying on talent, and they got lazy.

A year later I was playing basketball on my high school’s varsity and junior varsity teams. I had always been athletic, but there were guys on the team more naturally talented. Suddenly, some of those talented players dropped down the pecking order, while I was getting more playing time. Again, it’s because I was giving 100% effort all the time (on even the unglamorous stuff like defensive footwork), while others had gotten too complacent with their natural talents, and believed they didn’t need to work as hard for success. As most serious athletes will have heard, it’s the “one percenters” that make the difference. You cannot let your effort drop on the details.

20 years later, and I’ve been running a freelance design business for over a decade and…