Talent. Do you have it? Do I have it? Supposedly, everyone has an area of
expertise that is referred to as a talent. Nevertheless, isn't it troubling that one's amount of talent is mostly determined by the
opinions of other people? I certainly think so.
Let's look at Danielle Steel. Did you know she has written over 55 best selling novels? Sure, they are filled with 6th grade level vocabulary, but they do have those all-too-arousing love scenes, don't they? Okay, so we know she sucks as a writer. But since those housewives keep throwing her poorly written excuse for a novel on the grocery store counter between the cereal and orange juice, she thinks she has talent. Wow. If only she knew.
Britney Spears is considered one of the most powerful people and is rich, filthy stinkin' rich. And do you know why she's rich? Well, I'll tell you. Because sex sells (same goes for Danielle). Although, I can almost assure you that is not the reason she thinks common folk like me have seen her pretty face pasted everywhere from Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus to my own local bookstore in southern California. Oh no, of course that has nothing to do with her young, almost completely exposed body or her sexy choreographed dance moves. She must surely have talent to sell millions of CDs and be oh-so-popular! Right? Very, very wrong. Sorry Brit, you don't even write your own music and I would rather count the number of ants crawling around in my backyard for an hour than listen to you attempt to sing for 5.
Wait. Hold on! Step back and calm down for a moment! Yes, Britney calls herself an "entertainer", but do you know many singers who aren't entertainers? I didn't think so. And yes, I do know quite enough about her to know she thinks she has talent. And Ms. Romance could degrade her own writing, but she's still doing the job that only a person of talent should have. No matter what she may say about her own written creations, until she moves on to doing something else, well, she will never have a chance to realize how much the better the world would be without her.
I am not saying Danielle and Britney have no talent. Danielle is great at fooling people into thinking her writing is worthy of being published and bought. And also, she may be wonderful at many things that the average person doesn't know of, but whatever that is, she's not making millions doing it. As for Britney, well, she sure as hell can dance, but what does that have to do with her vocal career? Not much.
So far, it has been at least proven that people can be made millionaires doing what too many other people are so much better at. Also, I think we agree that a person can be led to believe that they have talent because other people tell them so with their actions, not because they actually do.
I think the hardest part of talent is making other's believe you have it.
I'm going to use myself for this example. Since I have begun writing, I have been told that I am a good writer, it's a gift that I should put to use, my writing makes me uniquely special and mostly, I have heard time and time again, it's my talent.
Writing is my talent?
Well, the other night, I was sharing a piece of my writing with a friend and he did not seem too excited about it. I had recently become use to expecting compliments on my writing, but he wasn't giving any. I was shocked, somewhat appalled, almost sick, but mostly, I was hurt because I started to doubt myself and my talents.
I started to ask myself questions like these:
What does he mean? Why isn't he amazed by my brilliance? Maybe I'm horrible and I have been constantly lied to for the last 10 years?! How can this be? If I'm not a good writer, what am I?
Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the same goes for talent.
So hate me! Think I suck and I should disappear forever from E2! Spit at your computer screen and twist your face in disgust!
But guess what? Even though I may not fool you into thinking I'm talented, there's a few other billion people I might. Wish me luck.