Talent Is An Excuse

The name Picasso is synonymous with genius. His work launched cubism and shaped the history of modern art.

Talented though he was, Picasso also practised his craft every single day.

It’s believed he created somewhere between 50,000 and 110,000 pieces of art in his lifetime. That’s an average of 2-4 pieces of work every day.

It’s easy to categorise his achievements as the product of his talent. It’s harder to accept it as the result of his effort.

When we see success around us, our natural response is to attribute it to things we cannot control - luck, fate, connections, circumstances, natural talent or nepotism.

Your colleague gets promoted, “Well, of course! The boss loves her.”

A friend’s business takes off, “Yeah, his family’s loaded. They probably bank rolled the whole thing!”

This gets us off the hook. We can’t influence these things which allows us to keep looking for shortcuts, silver bullets, secrets and magic pills.

Success is almost always the result of someone’s hard work, consistency and patience.

Full days, long nights and weekends. Working consistently every day. Practising their craft, hustling for every customer and continuously producing work.

Picasso didn’t paint because he was a great painter. Picasso became great by painting.

Forget talent. Focus on daily progress instead.