Talent Trumps Intelligence

It’s terrifying when something, looked at differently, can lead to vastly disparate outcomes.

If only we had known better, right?

It’s something that scares me perhaps most of all — that I may not be seeing clearly enough.

But all said and done, perennial, tumultuous periods of doubt are bound to take over. And very often you will not indeed know any better. But that’s how you grow. Through time, mistakes and insight.

So why then do we insist on a sub-optimal, self-constraining culture of intelligence? And that too, of a very particular kind.

The way intelligence is used in our context, from our schooling days to the professional front, it seems almost fixed in nature. Either it’s something you have or something you don’t. It’s either something you can apply or something you can’t. It’s like the sorting hat in Harry Potter. Someone calls you either intelligent or dull, and that sticks with you like being in Gryffindor or god forbid, Slytherin!

But the label won’t stick if you don’t let it. But few want to be unintelligent, right? That would be plain sad.

So why not think of intelligence in terms of talent then?

Something that is versatile, dynamic and learnable — as long you have the inclination, will and desire to pursue it. Unlike the frame through which we experience intelligence, talent is something that can be developed with patience, care and joy. It’s something that can be earned, shared and celebrated. It’s something that helps you see that all you desire is within you, and that “you have already arrived” (Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull).

Because of these reasons and many more, talent is a far cry from intelligence. Most importantly, perhaps because it unleashes your potential. Intelligence calls to your ego, whereas talent calls to your heart. And ego simply gets in the way of good work.

Now imagine a world in which children are raised to believe their abilities are not fixed, but can change over time with patience and perseverance. Imagine a world in which more of us did things for the heck of it more often — to have fun and to learn — with no calculated outcome in mind. Imagine a world in which universities considered candidates’ emotional intelligence, self-awareness and ability to adapt. Imagine a world in which corporates developed talent improvement programs rather than performance improvement programs. Imagine a world in which we weren’t so afraid of not being a person that we miss out on being ‘x’. Imagine a world in which we didn’t think of work in terms of earnings, productivity, and security, but rather the opportunity to employ our minds in ways that we haven’t encountered before and become closer to our souls. Imagine a world more fluid, diverse, patient, nurturing and encouraging. Where we didn’t find identity through comparison, but identity through meaning.

That’s the difference between intelligence and talent. So which one would you pick? The answer is clear.