For as long as I can remember I’ve had the belief that I can excel at pretty much anything. Belief is the important part here - there have been plenty of things I’ve tried and failed at - but I have always had the mindset that if I practice enough I can get into the top 5%, maybe even the top 1% in a given area.

The subject even came up in an interview late last year. I was applying for a Lead Developer role and was answering questions around self-improvement in a team when I found myself talking about how far you can get with consistent effort towards a goal. Up until that point I don’t think I’d even given it all that much thought.

Looking back, I think this outlook stemmed from gaming. One of the first online games I truly dedicated time to was a Half Life 2 mod called SourceForts. I spent hundreds of hours playing that game and got to a fairly high level in the “competitive” community.

After that pretty much any game with a competitive element, an online leaderboard, or a difficult achievement (or trophy) that I’ve played I’ve approached with the same outlook - that I can do it with enough practice.

In a lot of cases I’ve succeeded, I’ve reached the Global Elite level on CS:GO, and set top 100 lap times on tracks in racing games. I never reached a professional level, but I’ve managed to get myself into the top players when I’ve focussed on it.

It’s worth saying that my approach hasn’t always panned out. Sometimes no matter how much you practice, you might not make it to the top. I spent countless hours skateboarding as a child, but could never land a 360 flip. I did have a lot of fun along the way though.

Similarly, I never got past Gold league in StarCraft 2. I think that one might have stemmed from not having enough fun playing the game. When you’re not having fun it’s a lot harder to commit the time you need to invest to improve. And when you’re expecting results to come quicker than they do, it can be disheartening.

That’s a lot of history, but I felt it important for context for something that happened to me very recently. I found myself down a YouTube rabbit hole and came across Matt Armstrong’s channel. I’ve probably been living under a rock to have not come across it until now, but if like me you haven’t seen it but have an interest in cars I would highly recommend it.

The content I’ve been watching focuses on buying written off or crash damaged cars, and restoring them to working order. The videos I’ve watched have been both interesting, funny, and the people involved all seem genuine and down to earth.

When watching the channel, I kept seeing merch branded with HWBT. It wasn’t immediately obvious what it was, but I went to buy a keychain (labelled “Money Pit” - something highly appropriate for my car at the moment) and found out it was an abbreviation of “Hard Work Beats Talent”. I thought that was genius - it put into words and summed up the exact thing I spoke about in that interview.

I mentioned that the content I’ve watched focuses on the repair of extremely expensive cars, but the channel itself was born from something a lot simpler. This is someone that started out doing repairs on his own car in a car park or on a driveway. There may have been a small amount of luck involved with the YouTube algorithm or timing of his content, but for the most part this is someone that has just worked very hard on something they enjoyed and become successful from it - living his own motto.

I’m not going to disregard talent. If someone has an innate ability to excel at a certain skill or task, that is a great starting point and they have a natural advantage in that field. The key though, is that it is only a starting point. It’s not sufficient on its own, and if that talented individual doesn’t also work at honing their skills, they can be left in the dust by a less talented person who has focused on improving.

I don’t think I’ve found my talent yet, and there are probably a lot of people in the same boat. Others might have found they’re talented at something they don’t enjoy. Both of these things are a shame, but not the end of the world.

When you find the thing that you enjoy and want to excel at, the important thing is then to pursue it. Focus all your effort, and you have a significantly higher chance of success. Not only will you improve, but with enough time and effort you can be as good as any talented individual in the same field. Looking at myself and some of the anecdotes above, enjoyment or lack thereof has played a factor in the things I’ve been good at, and the things I either failed at or abandoned.

So if you’ve ever thought that something would be easier if you were talented, I’d agree with you. But try not to think you’d be better if you were talented. It’s an important distinction, a talent will give you a head start but most of the time, you can get to the same level with focus and practice. Always remember: Hard Work Beats Talent.