718: The fallacy of being a “natural”

Truthfully, don’t you assume people who are the best at what they do were just naturals at it, to some degree? Yet we have so many stories of people who had no natural ability and performed at a very low level, but trained themselves up into a level of mastery. In a stark example we have James Earl Jones, with one of the most recognizable voices in the world, who was almost mute as a child for eight years, thanks to a severe stutter. Not that drastic, but in this show I bring you a message from Zig Ziglar explaining his desire to enter sales solely due to a financial incentive, and his following two years of languishing as a very poor salesman. It’s an entertaining story of course, but it really puts into perspective the reality that often the masters did not start off with an advantage. They simply applied themselves, learned and trained. Which opens the doors for you to pursue even those things that don’t come naturally. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices