I recently got in an arguement with one of my friends while we were discussing art and literature. My stance was that raw talent will beat out passion and practice any day. I think that a person can learn how to draw or write the basic elements of a story but what they learn will not help them create anything of substance. I think, in the world of art, you either have it or you don’t. What do you think? Try to leave out other fields like sports and sciences. Thanks
Raw talent isn’t easy to quantify; some people are gifted with the talent of passion and tenacity - there’s no objective answer to be had here (maybe that’s why we are in IMHO) - My opinion is that talent is often inextricably tied up with passion and practice - chicken and egg.
It takes at least a little talent and dedication (practice) and luck.
With no talent at all, the most dedicated writer will be a hack.
With no dedication, the most talented writer in the world will start beautiful books two sentences long.
With no luck, a talented and dedicated writer will go undiscovered.
You need at least a little of all three. But gobs of talent will make up for only a little dedication. Gobs of dedication will make up for just a little talent. And if you get lucky enough, you won’t need much talent or dedication.
I know a number of published writers. Some have very little talent, but work their butts off. Some have lots of talent, and barely stop to put words on paper. And some have been unusually lucky.
Doesn’t matter if you are talking about writing, or art, or acting, or math, or computers, or raising kids btw.
IMO, talent is better than passion & practice but there are more passionate people than talented people and the passionate are the ones who generally achieve more than the talented who lack such passion.
I do not agree with the notion of talent.
I believe that success is earned, and skill is the result of hard work.
My $0.02
I think talent is overrated. I think that a lot of people have a smidgen of talent, but no desire to practice or put effort into their work. So they think they have no “talent”, but in fact, they have enough talent, just not enough drive or dedication to do anything with it.
I confess, it gets on my nerves when people talk about “talent” as if there is all there is to it. It implies that those who have achieved something were only able to do it because of something they got at birth—not something that they worked at.
But in my observation, the vast majority of people I know who have accomplished something have only be able to do it because of a lot of effort and practice. I think it’s often a cop-out to say, “Well, I could do that too, if I were talented enough.” In many cases, they are talented enough! They are just too lazy to do anything with it! I think that’s the case with many of us. We either decide to do something with our talents (even if they seem meagre at first) or we don’t. And “doing something” usually requires struggle and effort. Not all of us are willing to do that. It’s easier to say that we were never “talented enough” to begin with.
However, Dangerosa is right—you need at least a little of all three. Every once in a while, I’ll see someone with a lot of dedication but they just don’t have a clue—it’s a sad thing to see. But I don’t think it’s that common of a phenomenon. I see far more lazy or discouraged semi-talented people than motivated but untalented people. YMMV.
Talent makes a definite difference, but dedication is needed to make something of it. Even so, dedication alone may not be enough. Here’s an example.
I have a brother who’s a year and a half younger than I am. We’re roughly equal in intelligence, but I have a talent for languages, while he’s more gifted in math. He was also a harder worker than I am, at least in high school. Back then, we both wound up in the same 2nd year French class. Since I kidded my brother about his lack of ability with languages, it was made quite clear to me that if I ever did worse in that class than he did, I would be razzed within an inch of my life! Throughout the year, my brother would work hard and study diligently. I, on the other hand, would glance at the vocabulary list before the test, and maybe another point of grammar or two if I needed to. I consistently did better than him, although I think we both got A’s in the class.
Twenty years later, little brother is a lot more successful than I am, and things would have been reversed in a math class. I also did have to work a lot harder when I majored in Japanese in college, but I believe that talent gives a certain indefinable spark that makes it easier to do something well. Hard work takes that spark and fans it into a flame.
CJ
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Calvin Coolidge
I agree with the consensus that talent is great, but it isn’t everything. Throughout my school years I was always in art classes. Drawing, painting, sculpting, it all came very naturally to me. I never really paid attention in the classes because to me, it was just another class – only this one I could doodle while the teacher was talking and not get in trouble 
The classes were always split about 80/20 by way of passion & practice/talent. For the most part, the 20% of us that had it naturally did our own thing. The rest of class had varied success, but always showed improvement by the end of the course. My 20% usually didn’t have much to show for the class other than a few more pieces for our portfolios.
I think in some ways natural talent can be a curse. I rejected a scholarship to an art college because I thought that I’d always have my art, and why would I need to go to school for something that came naturally? Probably one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made. I’m now working my way through college, wishing desperately that I’d had a little more passion and persistence – enough to get me through 4 years of art school, at least.
I am fortunate enough to have a small handful of talents, which I’ve used in a not-too-horribly lazy way to produce things of worth, value, and compensation-worthiness. I have a pretty good ear for music & can compose, I can make most of the sounds I hear in my head come out of the piano, I can put complex thoughts and concepts into words decently well, and I can create versatile and effective FileMaker databases. There are also a handful of things I’ve always wished I could do well, but for which I seem to have no (or very little) innate talent: drawing & painting, creating 3D worlds in Bryce or similar programs, writing attention-gripping fiction, romancing (sigh), marketing the products of my talents (double sigh), and keeping & maintaining a hobby car.
I took training courses, read automotive hobby magazines, worked in a garage for a few years, and kept buying parts and going back to fix my errors, and for years essentially worked to support my car (whichever one I was doing at the time) and through sheer dedication and passion, persistence, and a willingness to spend all my money I did at times have a really cool 60’s era full-sized Pontiac “sleeper” performance car / luxury car combo at my disposal to cruise around in, show off to my friends, and take pride in. But I was constantly screwing up, often destructively (like the time I forgot to lube the brand new ball joints I’d spent a full day replacing, resulting in ruined brand new ball joints a week later).
In contrast, even in circumstances characterized by exquisite laziness and lack of planning or attentiveness, I’ve been able to do things like walk into college “ear training” class without having done any practice, hear for the first time the definition of something like a “minor two chord if this is the one” as the instructor reviews it before testing us, and then while everyone else in the class was listening carefully with great concentration to the transitions 5 of 6 times (with each chord played first as an arpeggio, then as a solid chord) before making a tentative guess when it was their turn, I’d be able to call them out with a yawn on the second or third note of the arpeggio, “major four from the one, root repeated in the tenor, alto has the third”. Pissed off the instructor because I was being obnoxious and bored to his obnoxious and stuffy, and it was just something that would come to me effortlessly.
Conclusion: talent won’t accomplish anything by itself (as others have said) but talent plus 3% effort applied very very late in the game can catch up to dedication and perseverance in the blink of an eye.