A Message to the "Gifted and Talented"

"The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work." - Emile Zola

I believe that this quote is relevant to all facets of life. If you want to interpret based on its most literal meaning, it means that an artist must have some sense of natural creativity and talent, but that talent doesn't mean anything if you don't work to develop it. I can think of a hundred different examples that demonstrate this, but for time's sake, I'll only mention a few.

In the realm of academics and learning, a student can be naturally intelligent and have really good analytical skills, but if that particular student is too lazy to apply themselves and work to maintain that intelligence by either not challenging themselves or just not doing work, then the natural intelligence slowly deteriorates, and is no longer a "gift." In theater, an actor can have a natural ability to understand the subtext of their lines, but if they don't do any outside research to apply that understanding to character development, then they can't fully transform into that particular character. Finally, if an athelete is naturally gifted in their respective sport, but fails to do the necessary training or work, they will never reach their full potential.

However, there's something to be said for simply HAVING a natural gift. Thomas Edison once said that genius is "1% inspiration and 99% perspiration," meaning that a genius is a self-creation with almost no gift. I find this interesting because Zola also says that the artist is NOTHING without the gift, meaning that there has to be at least some natural talent to work with. It's hard to say who's opinion is more accurate. Can we truly say that someone with no natural talent can succeed if they work really hard? For instance, some children have learning disabilities, something they can't control. Depending on the severity of the disibilities, those people may never be able to become genuises because they won't have any natural gift to work with. In that sense, I would agree more with Zola, but I would also add that the gift varies based on a combination of genetics and a person's environment.