What is talent?

by Pietro Grandis

Every time someone starts to practice a sport, be it riding, football, bowling or anything else, regardless of whether this person is a child or an adult, they immediately find themselves addressing the concept of ‘talent’. And yet no one is able to explain what talent actually means and no one is also unable to understand whether or not it really exists until one personally experiences it.

In my experience, the myth of talent has been created by those who, in the course of their sports career, have been unable to achieve the goals they had set for themselves. Perhaps this was caused by fear, by a lack of ability, because they were not sufficiently committed, or were unlucky or any of the other many variables one meets on one’s path. In my opinion therefore, success or failure do not depend on talent. ‘With talent’ or ‘without talent’ are labels attributed to us by others.

The will to make progress is a mental attitude, but the ability to turn thoughts into actions is the result of training and hard work. If you train and work hard you improve. How many riders considered to be talented have vanished along the way? Lots! And why? Because they relied on having been told ‘what talent!’ and did not commit to working and training seriously so as to make progress.

I have personally experienced that, regardless of the level at which one rides, if you put all your good will and effort into it and work tirelessly, you will make progress and reach a good level. In the end, talent is not something innate, but rather what one has created for oneself with one’s experience.

Full article on this month’s issue