If you believe that the skills you have today are from raw, natural, talent. I’m about to burst your bubble. The harsh truth is that you weren’t born with any gifts, and you didn’t get where you are today by just existing. You may have been born with tendencies, but true talent is earned.
Sure, you might have a natural passion for something, but that doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have talent for it. Jimi Hendrix was an incredibly talented musician, and an especially talented guitarist. But Hendrix didn’t just pick up a guitar and play like a rock star. He used his natural passion for the music to develop his talent.
The word “talented” gets thrown around a lot in sales circles. “He’s a naturally talented closer,” or “She’s a naturally talented networker.” It’s a convenient way to put mental distance between the achievement of others and where we currently are at the moment. But the pure definition of talent is one of those root definitions that we’ve gradually lost touch with over the centuries.
Talent actually comes from the medieval Latin root talenta, which means “inclination, will, or desire.” Talent itself isn’t a born trait; it’s developed and created through sheer will and desire. And all you need to do to confirm this as the truth is to look at the anatomy of your brain.
Different people might be born with slightly more natural ability in a specific area, but science shows that effort always overcomes genetics. When you see an Olympic athlete breaking the world sprinting record, or a math whizz mentally creating multi-digit calculations, it’s easy to assume they’re just blessed with skills beyond our own. It’s also easy to rationalize their success as nothing more than winners in a genetic lottery. When you do this, you give up your own ability to ever reach that level. You’re giving up your own agency. That doesn’t mean you’ll ever run as fast as Usain Bolt, or go to the moon like Buzz Aldrin. But it also doesn’t mean you won’t.
The truth is that there is scientifically almost no connection between a person’s “natural” talent and their capacity for success. Multiple studies bear this truth out. Someone might be born with natural speed, but someone born with zero natural speed will surpass them if they out-train them. In a way, everyone is born with natural talent, it just depends on how you grow it.
Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code proved that effort creates talent, not the other way around. When you stress the wiring in your brain with repetition, it builds up something called myelin in your brain. This is the coating that wraps around your neural pathways. The more you do something, the more myelin you build up around that wire. And the more myelin you build up, the faster the signal moves across those wires and the better you are at something.
But you aren’t born with these strong myelin connections, they don’t just grow on their own. You create them.
Traditional Sales And Leadership Training Fails To Address The Real Problem!
You’ve tried training your team in the past, but it didn’t really work. The old style of training just doesn’t seem to work anymore. It’s no secret that sales and leadership training is essential, but it can be hard to find a training program that actually works. Most programs are outdated and are not focused on changing behavior.
FPG Sales Training is different. We don’t use the traditional approach of lecturing your team for hours on end. Instead, we help your team understand their mindset and give them the tools they need to succeed. We help them remove their excuses so they can finally achieve their goals. Book a Meeting today!
