Talent and hardwork are two key components of any interdisciplinary or athletic endeavor and are thus discussed with a great amount of tact as they can arouse sensitivities within individuals.

In a real world context, suggesting that an individual is not putting forth their best effort and performing on a sub par level can quickly motivate a person to work harder, lower their self esteem, or do a combination of both.

However, in the case of talent, suggesting that an individual is not talented can have lasting, detrimental effects on a psychosocial level.

Conversations surrounding talent are thus controversial as talent’s extreme gravity on an individual implies that it is perceived as more important, or valuable than that of hard work.

Although this phenomenon seems self-evident within our society, the question presents itself, of the two, talent and hardwork, which is more important?

The integration of talented and hard working individuals into the workforce is essential for the growth, and subsequent success of the business. Hard working individuals often lack a natural, inherent talent and aim to make up for it by working harder than an individual who possesses a lump sum of natural talent.

The talented individual however, tends to not feel the need to work as hard due to the fact that this person is able to use less energy to attain decent results. With that being said, it is important to note that there is a gray area of unity between these two components yet, it is quite rare.

In order to achieve the same results as the talented individual, a hard working person must tap into their potential and try their best. For this reason, society places a greater amount of importance on individuals who have the innate potential to be exceptional at what they do.

This concept is found within a wide range of real world experiences in which customers, clients, and consumers as a whole desire the crème de la crème to carry out their requests in spite of the cost.

Dr. Chia-Jung Tsay, a psychologist at the University College London capitalizes on this phenomenon stating that as a society, “we are willing to give up better-qualified candidates in order to hire those believed to be naturals.”

Such a statement is a testament to how important talent is within our society.

In fact, Dr. Chia-Jung Tsay goes on to say that “We are likely to perceive the performance attributed to naturals as better than the same performance when attributed to strivers. We are often unaware of our preference for naturalness.”

This finding can be dismissed although it is grounded in empirical evidence based on a study conducted on “900 U.S. investors profiles”.

In other words, investors would prefer to give their money to individuals with an intrinsic gift and knack for what they do.

Investor is a more remote term but it can be applied to virtually anyone.

When a person decides to purchase an item and/or service, they are in fact engaging in an investment which suggests that those 900 investor profiles can be perceived as a sample group for society as a whole.

As a consumer, one desires the most refined and efficient product and in order to achieve this, the producer must be talented, or must they?

The answer is a resounding yes and no; the quality of the product can be greater if a talented person performs at their full potential but the truth is, this is a very rare scenario. In fact, according to an article from Psychology Today, within the workforce, “Most of the time, you are going to be end up competing against rivals with one of these attributes, talent or hard work, not both.”

The same follows suit for other endeavors. An innate talent can be more important than hard work but the mechanisms that allow for that are extremely rare.