The Myth of Talent and How to Bust It

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most talented (short story writers) of all time, had a life lesson around talent that truly encapsulates my belief in WHY humans MUST do things, participate in activities of various interests, outside work… keep engaging with your interests even if you are not an ace at it.

Want to be an actor? Don’t act for an Oscar, shoot a short film with a friend. Want to sing, ignore American Idol. Want to write? Keep a notebook with your ideas, even if not finished…
Just do things that keep your brain active, engaged.

You don’t owe it to anyone to be the best at anything as long as you are YOUR best.

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you,’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
And he went WOW. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘
‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at ANY of them.”
And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘ I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’
And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘Win’ at them.”