Is talent born or manufactured?

· by · in Aspects of Life. ·

“Is talent born or manufactured?”

“Is talent God-gifted or developed as a hobby/interest?”

“Does it come naturally or you improve upon your passion for something?”

Plenty of questions already and I suppose the answers from many of you could be the same as mine.
This idea came to mind when my fellow blogger Soumya commented on one of my posts with a poem. It was not the first time she did this but her poem just came with the flow of the theme of the post, or I shall say, be it ANY theme, she can write a poem on it. I was about to reply that she possessed a God gifted talent, but then the second thought struck to me simultaneously, that maybe it’s her passion and she manufactured and developed it herself.

So the question arose in my mind, “Is talent born or manufactured?”

I asked this and some other questions to Soumya in an email conversation, and here’s what I got as response. I’m just posting a part of that.

“What I believe is talent is God gifted…we work on it to make it more perfect. But sometimes when we learn something, we are more perfect at the presentation, e.g. grammar, outline, sketch, layout, but the real essence is missing. This happens for the work has not done from heart. It requires full passion and dedication with the truest feelings to make any form of art beautiful and touching!”

There’s a phrase you must have heard- “Practice makes a man perfect.” I personally don’t believe in perfection, in fact perfection I think is delusional to some extent, but I do believe the more effort you put behind it, the better you will be at it. That takes time; that takes energy.


It also takes a certain amount of courage to follow one’s passions. I often think about life like a screenplay. If you think about a screenplay every once in a while there are pivotal moments where you can see that the play can go in either direction and I think that’s the same way in life — it could go in either direction and it takes a lot of courage to not go down the safest path but to follow what you really believe in.

Talent is your vehicle, passion is your fuel, and potential is your destination. – Terry Mante

Any success comes with having the ability to use your skills and talents, and that only happens when you work really hard at it. I think we all are born with a potential, which if fostered and developed leads to some great skill and talent. But if we don’t have it in the first place, can any amount of training or wishful thinking bring great success to it?? Let me know what you think.

38 responses to “Is talent born or manufactured?”

  1. I believe also that talent has to be mixed with passion… and also dedication and patience. But it’s true that I’ve also seen people doing art effortlessly… just like magic. These are interesting questions and worth to ponder on… but I can’t seem to find a stable answer. Born or manufactured? Maybe both… Great post!

  2. Beautiful post Tapish and you covered each point very precisely.Iam touched that you found my words worth enough to be inspiring and thought provoking.Most importantly mentioning it brings out more emotions .I can only say Iam humbly touched. Your thoughts are beautiful and show a sign of self seeking and introspection.

  3. Reblogged this on soumyav and commented:
    Beautiful post Tapish and you covered each point very precisely.Iam touched that you found my words worth enough to be inspiring and thought provoking.Most importantly mentioning it brings out more emotions .I can only say Iam humbly touched. Your thoughts are beautiful and show a sign of self seeking and introspection.

  5. wonder & quest about this stuff a lot
    shall surely do more as I’ve seldom been certain just what to expend perfecting energies into, though as you say, not sure that’s possible.
    got more to chew on.

  6. I understand what you mean about ‘effortlessness’, and certainly there are things to be learned and practiced about anything we do. But I wonder sometimes if the passion itself is not the same thing as the innate talent part.

    • Yes it’s a valid point. I missed on that. It generally happens with us. We got to seek the talent and keep the passion going. That’ll be a bonus!

  7. What I mean is the passion is inside us, but that itself is a gift. And when we discover passions and pursue them, the ability follows. I wouldn’t swear that is true. I just wonder if it is.

  8. You sre quite right. Creative people put their skills to work in many ways. Some people who are creative do not aquire the passion or the skills but I think that everyone has the potential. Creative work is the hardest work that you will do. Sure, you get better but always strive for more!

  9. Hi Tapish, you offer a very good theme. I think talent is a gift fom nature that we hone as we live. The tool we must hone it with is – you are right – passion. I do not feel very good or I might have plenty to say. Winter is very hard on me. Maybe later. v.

    • Thanks Vera. You are absolutely right as usual.
      No hurries. Take your time and let me know.
      Take good care of yourself.
      Best wishes and regards.

  10. Hi Tapish: Excellent question ! Talent is a gift from God but for any talent to reach its full potential there must be a catalyst.God provides the talent it is up to the individual to put the effort into making the most of the talent. We have immense responsibility to each other to use our gifts to make the world a better place.

  11. 1.Talent is a born quality for sure, it cant be manufactured.
    You know its like a diamond, the brightest pearl, but it never comes in its perfect form(shape). We need to cut it, mould it, by hard work, determination and passion. Without that, it’s just near to being worthless.
    There are manufactured diamonds, like American diamonds and others, but they can never be a real diamond, how ever neatly cut.
    2. God gifted of developed via hobby/interest. As mentioned above, I firmly agree its god gifted. A god gift, in which when we have interest, and take it as a hobby at times. 😉 Without being a god gift….for me it’s a no.
    3. Naturally or improvement. Ammm…yup. It comes naturally, but we need to improve it by our passion and hard work. You know, no one is born perfect, nor can be, but being better…its a law of nature just like changes! One always improves, and there is always a room for improvement. However, if it doesn’t come naturally, the thing wont ever be related to the soul. And it is a big factor. It has to come naturally, other wise, the touch of heart wont be there.
    We have made robots, machines, and lots of stuffs, even clones…but we cant revive a human. That’s the difference. “Natural”

    Last one, I cant be too sure, because I amn’t a god or goddess, but then even, I think if one is not born with it at the first place, we might, by regular practice, get a bit better, but nope, it wont be the same thing. Consider the diamond example. In my view, the thing that comes from heart has a different taste.

    Nevertheless, of course, these are my own views; I don’t impose them on anyone. Any other views are heartily welcomed.

    I said too much?…amm…right…
    sorry…
    Need to be careful next time.

    • Absolutely! And first of all, I must say, great comment and thoughts, Snehal.
      1. I agree that part is dependent on us. We are given silver spoons (read talnet), but we need to learn to make use of them to feed our life.

      2. I believe it has to be a blend of both. It is God gifted but then we have to improve upon it to bring it to notice.

      3. I totally agree with this part.

      And, about the last one, yes it is next to impossible I’ll say. But maybe rare, very rare, the case comes true.

      Loved to read your thoughts. Really!
      And I like long comments. So no problems at all. Infact it’s good for me that I could make you think so much. Thank you so much friend!
      Take care.

  12. I think we have to try some things we are interested in and see where it leads us…there are usually some happy surprises in what we can actually accomplish! Thanks for the “like”…My Best…

  13. Our distinct creative seed was planted within us, long ago before we entered the world by He who gave us life, the master creator, and the seed was watered and nourished, and a spark was within was born and gave it passion, and a flaming desire within our lives made it blossom and grow , bringing forth an abundant harvest each and every day. We are many parts of a large body, and each has its own distinct gift that makes the body whole and complete, everyone with their own special gifts! Great thought to ponder over!

    • Thank you first of all. Great to read your comment. You said much more than your words.
      Yes we all have our gifts, we have to learn unpacking them and bring them to proper use!

  14. Well said. Talent is both gift and effort. We need one to strengthen the other… Now, there are those great souls who sacrifice everything to achieve a goal for which they have limited talent… Their perseverance pays off and soon everybody wants to be their friend. Then there are those with talent who misuse it… or do nothing. Talent without application is wasted time. As for perfection, we are perfect in our imperfection. Take care Tapish!

  16. I remember having read in a book that for a man to be genius he/she practices around 10.000 hours that specific talent. They had this data from examining famous people lives (ones that were seen as geniuses by our society, but can’t remember names), and for a skill to become more you need to practice it over and over again. And another thing I believe perfection is just highly subjective and personal and thus subject to change (perfect night, perfect boyfriend, perfect movie etc will change as your personality/expectations change). Perfection as an accepted and general standard doesn’t exist.
    Interesting post btw.

    • Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment. I agree to each of your point. Yes, perfection has no definition, could be different for you, could be different for me any one else.
      Thanks!

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