Is Talent Enough?
Posted September 8, 2011 in Inspiration
How important is talent? Is it enough to let you succeed as a freelancer?
On the one hand, we’d love to believe that sheer talent automatically leads to freelancing success every time. Who doesn’t like a story of someone who rises from obscurity solely because of their outstanding ability? That’s the stuff movies are made of.
As freelancers, however, we are reluctantly forced to admit that such stories of “overnight” success are the exception rather than the rule. Most success depends on lots of hard work.
In this post, we’ll discuss the role that talent plays in success and explain how you can make sure that you reap the success your talent deserves.
Find Your Talent
If you’re a freelancer, you probably already do have some talent. After all, you can’t really freelance unless you have a marketable skill. And you wouldn’t be able to market your skill if you weren’t good at it.
However, if you haven’t actually started freelancing yet or if you’re still trying to figure out what you’re good at, here are a few guidelines for finding your talent:
- What do you enjoy doing most? Chances are that whatever it is you enjoy doing is related somehow to your talent. For example, I love to play scrabble because I’m naturally good with words.
- What do others say you’re good at? Listen to your critics (and admirers). They generally know what they are talking about. For example, if someone is constantly praising your artwork, chances are you’re good at art.
- What are you willing to spend a lot of time doing? To reap the rewards of your talent, you’ll need to put a lot of effort into perfecting it. If this is going to take the fun out of it, chances are you won’t be able to market it.
Now that you’ve found your talent, it’s time to take the next step.
Build Upon Your Talent
Once you’ve figured out where your talent lies, it’s time to build upon that talent. You need to sharpen your natural abilities and hone your skills.
There are several steps you can take to build upon your talent:
- Practice. You may have heard the popular phrase, practice makes perfect. Well, there’s a good reason why the phrase is popular. It’s usually true. The best way to get better at something is to practice doing it.
- Learn. Even with your natural ability, you don’t know everything there is to know about your field. Look for a skilled mentor or teacher and learn everything you can from them.
- Be open. Don’t chose to isolate yourself from new ideas. Read and study everything you can find. Sometimes inspiration comes from the most unusual places.
You’ve bolstered your talent and you’re finally ready to take the last step.
Showcase Your Talent
Now that you’ve honed your talent, you are ready to show it off. This is where many truly talented individuals fail. You won’t really be successful until you’ve shared your talent with the world.
How can you showcase your talent? Well, there are many ways to get exposure for your talent (and fortunately the internet has made sharing your talent easier than ever). Here are just a few of them:
- Have a website. Whatever your talent happens to be, a website is the perfect medium for showing it off. If you’re an artist, post your artwork. If you’re a writer, highlight your writing. If you’re a photographer, show the world your pictures.
- Advertise. No one will know that you’re good at what you do unless you tell them. Advertise your services. Social media is great for this.
- Teach. There are many forms of teaching. You can teach an actual class virtually, or in real life. Or, you can write a book or offer coaching/mentoring services.
The Bottom Line
So, is talent enough to succeed as a freelancer? If you’ve read this far into the post, you’ve probably already figured out the answer, but just in case you haven’t…
In my opinion, no, talent is usually not enough by itself, but it’s a mighty good start. Success is usually due to a combination of a lot of hard work AND some talent.
Your Turn
How important do you think talent is to your freelancing success? How do you showcase your talent?
Share your answers in the comments.
Image by Sergey Ivanov
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About the author: Laura Spencer is a freelance writer from North Central Texas with over 20 years of professional business writing experience. If you liked this post, then you may also enjoy Laura’s blog about her freelance writing experiences, WritingThoughts. Laura is also on Google+.
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11 Comments
Gold
September 8th, 2011 at 9:17 amI don’t agree. There is something else that comes before. I would suggest that knowledge of what is possible and what it takes or what work (what ever that means) is involved to succeed is required.
What is “hard work?” What is hard to one is play to another.
Interesting point of view.
Harleena Singh
September 8th, 2011 at 10:58 amHi Laura,
Great post!
Yes indeed, talent has to be a combination of lots of things. Once you know you have the required talent to get started, you do need to work on it, build it like you said, and spread the word- or else no one recognizes it!
For me, showcasing the talent you have is of utmost importance- for which you need to also connect and network with people, and let them know about your website/blog, and keep the learning process on!
Thanks for sharing :)
Daquan Wright
September 8th, 2011 at 11:57 amThere is talent like Einstein (I actually knew a guy in one of my classes who was kind of like him, in how he acted) and us regular folk. xD So there’s really no reason to think that talent is some godly attribute when few people are blessed with that sort of thing.
I just think of talent as having an aptitude for a specific topic, but even then practicing the subject for many years builds that foundation. So I think of talent in general as enjoying what you do and being able to do it efficiently.
I think the much bigger part of freelancing (work in general) is that you need discipline, even for a regular office job. No matter how talented you are, a lack of discipline will lead to a monument of nothingness.
I don’t think talent is that important, but skill, theoretical knowledge and understanding, and discipline are vitally important. I just think of talent as complementing that, but not that it’d break you if you weren’t a genius in the field (as few people are).
Manish Gusain
September 8th, 2011 at 12:08 pmHi Laura
Great Post for those people who want to be popular and move there talent in a right way. But also think that luck also play important factor as far as success is concern apart from the talent and Hard work. But I am not denying from that fact that talent and Hard work is nothing. Any way great post. Looking for such more articles.
Thanks
Dr. Freelance aka Jake Poinier
September 8th, 2011 at 12:17 pmWhenever I hear the word “talent,” I instantly think of the movie Miracle, when 1980 Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks excoriates his team after a lackluster effort: “You think you can win on talent alone? Gentlemen, you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone.”
So it is with freelancers, and your point about building and showcasing that talent is spot on. Being a skilled writer/designer/coder/photographer/illustrator is only part of the battle, which is why you have to be prepared to handle (or better yet, as Gold’s comment alludes to, enjoy!) the business and people side. Otherwise, you might be better off being in a corporate environment where the work comes to you. That’s neither good nor bad, but simple reality.
Thoughtful post, as always, Laura!
Josh Jones
September 8th, 2011 at 12:22 pmAdvertising and teaching are things I could definitely do more of.
As a part-time freelancer it’s hard but I just need to work harder at setting time to do so. Teaching in turn makes you more talented!
Laura Spencer
September 8th, 2011 at 1:00 pmGreat discussion here!
Harleena Singh–Yes, talent must be shared and showcased for success.
Thanks Manish Gusain! Luck does play a role, but I also believe that you can “make” your own luck…
Dr. Freelance aka Jake Poinier, Thanks Dr. Freelance! I love the move reference. :)
Josh Jones, I have heard many people say that they learn more from teaching than just about anything else.
Nikhil Malhotra
September 8th, 2011 at 3:13 pmTalent,hardwork and luck go hand in hand.Nothing can be acheived without the combination.
Shanna Cramer
September 9th, 2011 at 10:33 amIf your talent is in building businesses, then yes. Talent is enough. I’ve always said, if success was made on talent alone, the world would be a very different place.
Morgan & Me Creative
October 20th, 2011 at 2:38 pmCouldn’t agree more with Nikhil, Talent + Hard work + Luck is the killer combi. Without either, the formula wouldn’t work.
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