It is said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% hard work, but is it talent or relentless effort that is required for success?

We discuss the importance of talent and hard work through a quote from Thomas Edison. Through various examples, we illustrate that hard work is not enough to succeed, and while talent is necessary, talent alone does not guarantee success. In the end, it concludes that success is a combination of discovering your talent and building on it.

 

Thomas Edison, the American inventor of the light bulb, once said. “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% hard work.” This quote has become more famous than any of Thomas Edison’s inventions. For many people, it’s a quote that emphasizes the virtue of hard work, and it’s often the seed of hope for success, along with the plethora of self-help books that tell you that all your failures are due to a lack of effort. It’s interesting to note that Edison’s quote has been interpreted in different contexts. On the one hand, it emphasizes the importance of hard work, while on the other, it’s seen as a way of saying that if you don’t have talent or inspiration, it doesn’t matter how much effort you put in.
However, it can also be interpreted to mean that even with 99% effort, if you don’t have 1% inspiration, you won’t succeed. So, what does it take to be successful: hard work or talent?
Let’s first consider what happens when you only have one or the other. First of all, effort doesn’t guarantee success. For example, according to recent data, first-team players in Major League Baseball in the United States are well paid, with an average salary of $4.25 million. However, minor league players who aspire to make the first team make only $7,500 per year. Can we say that many of these players, who spend decades bouncing around the second and third divisions while earning less than average salaries, are working harder than the first division players? There are also many other examples of academics and artists. Many of them study and practice fiercely from a young age, but only a few make a name for themselves. In other words, despite their efforts, if they lack talent, it is very likely that they will not achieve the desired results. This is a common phenomenon in our society, even if it’s not necessarily in professional sports.
But it’s also wrong to assume that talent is a guarantee of success. Many people who are recognized for their talent at a young age often turn out to be less than average later in life. We often see people who were very talented as children, but as adults they lead mediocre lives. This suggests that talent alone is not enough to sustain success; it’s how you use that talent, coupled with sustained effort, that will eventually lead to success.
In the end, success is not about hard work or talent alone; both are important. But that doesn’t answer the question of which is more important: hard work or talent? In conclusion, I believe that effort is more important than talent. The key point here is that effort is something we can control. While talent is something you’re born with, effort is something you can choose to put in, which can help you develop your talents or even discover new ones. There are several reasons for this, but one of them is that I believe talent is ultimately discovered through hard work. When most people hear the word talent, they usually think of people who have a special talent, such as solving difficult math problems at a young age or playing a musical instrument skillfully, without any formal training. However, very few people are gifted in this way, and their natural abilities are not necessarily the foundation of their success. In fact, many successful people have maximized their potential through hard work and learning rather than their initial talent. Rather, they believe that through persistent effort, they can find areas in which their talents, or what they can do better than others when they put in the same amount of effort, will give them an edge over others.
So, if you want to succeed, you have to work hard. This is not to say that “if you want it badly enough and work hard enough, your dreams will come true,” but rather that “your efforts should have some direction.” In other words, if you are not happy with the results of your efforts, taking a step back and looking for a new direction is an option that you should consider, because giving up without trying harder may be, as some say, giving up at the sight of success, but if you think about it, you may not be able to succeed in the future because of your lack of talent despite your best efforts. In the end, true success comes from discovering your strengths and continuing to work on them. Therefore, if you can make an effort to find your talents during the time after giving up, you will be a little closer to success.