zlacker

>>i7l+(OP)
Natural ability (physical or mental) is not strongly correlated with the personality traits that enable a person to "perform", "succeed", or "achieve" in society the way it is structured. In fact, they may be inversely correlated (consider how often people in leadership positions are not apparently exceptional).

>>happyt+ua
There's a story about, I think, the kickboxer/fighter Alistair Overeem that he was playing Connect 4, and lost, and kept demanding rematches until he had the winning record. Just a refusal to be the loser. That matches every story I've ever heard about Michael Jordan.

>>kevinm+3c
At the same time, I can refuse to be a loser in chess and I'll still have 0% chance of beating Magnus Carlsen.

I'm very much a proponent of hard work to the best of your ability but I'm also a realist.

I'm pretty good at programming. I doubt Usain Bolt would ever be as good as I am at programming, even if he tried, and I certainly wouldn't be even close to be as good as Usain Bolt in running no matter how hard I tried.

I know how fast I was running in high school compared to 30 of my peers (my class) and there was never a path from there to a world class athlete.