Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of talents that any human being can possess in life. One is that of creative performances, which cannot be taught to anybody beyond a certain degree. These include fluent speaking and writing skills, skills of aptitude and intuition, skills of expression, skills of cleanliness and organization, skills of empathy and understanding and the skill to make people smile. Let us call these attributes Talent Type A.
In another type, you can teach a person to do a given thing in a particular way every time, and through hours or days of practice, he/she masters it. Such things include singing, dancing, driving a vehicle, operating any other machine or electronic gadget, cooking, solving mathematics problems in school, sewing, and building vocabulary in one or more languages. Let us call these attributes as Talent Type B.
If given a choice, I would always wish to possess the Type A talents, because you cannot master those even after years of practice and lecture. These are basically habits or caliber that any man is born with. I have also noticed another trend. You tend to get criticized more often for the lack of Type B talents. People who do the criticism fail to understand that, for example, a person who is not a good cook can become one in a few months of practice. However, a person who cannot express a given thought in proper words can never be taught to do so, no matter how much training you impart to him/her.
Sometimes in my free time, I reflect on what kind of criticism I have faced all throughout my life. At that point of time, I felt that those harsh words were justified because I was really weak in certain things. Now if that happens, I smile to myself, because those weaknesses have been converted into strengths after hours of dedication. Most of the time, if your are really talented then you would find that in the ultimate analysis, you possess most of both Type A and Type B talents, but the so-called “experts” can only boast of the latter.
However you should never react and tell them “Hey buddy, it’s a pity that you cannot write even a paragraph in English properly.” That goes against the culture of champions. This attitude of restraint and humility is what separates the good from the great ones. Besides, empty vessels tend to make more noise anyway, what is the big deal about it? The thing is they know that they can never be as good as you are, and hence they try to vent their frustrations by throwing harsh words at you. That’s the way the world lives day after day.
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