The Mentor | #56 | Effort
Each month, I share 3 things I’ve read on skills, careers, and personal development.
“Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” – Tim Notke
Everybody has talent. But, it’s also different for nearly everyone. The best success stories or careers are perhaps less about the amount of talent and more about matching the talent to mission. When the two align, something special will typically happen.
The other side of talent is effort. By demonstrating an unusual amount of effort, it typically comes across as talent, when in fact, it’s just effort.
I don’t remember where I saw this graphic (let’s call it the ‘Helpful Scale’), but to me it captures the convergence of talent and effort:
I think the lesson here is that we should not underestimate the impact of raw effort. And when you can match effort + mission + talent, watch out: that is where the magic truly happens.
What looks like natural talent is often just the visible result of invisible work. From sports to business, elite performers rise to the top because of what they do when no one is watching.
1
Effort creates the illusion of talent. Sustained effort produces extraordinary results.
2
The team you build is the company you build… so build a great team.
3
Deliberate practice — focused, structured, and intentional.
The topic of talent is growing rapidly in importance.
Until now, job descriptions and talents have rarely aligned.
We would first create rigid job descriptions — and then endlessly wrestle with the conundrum of how to fit talent into them.
But change is coming.
And it's coming fast.
Soon, we will search for talents first — and let the job descriptions emerge from the talent itself.
What will emerge won't be boxes or checklists — it will be pure value.
Great post Rob 🙌🏻!! I I am keen to hear your 3 top habits that create a high performance culture in relation to effort within an organisation (I.e our IBM).