You Don’t Find Talent, Your Talent Finds You

But to recognize it, you must pay attention to the signs

Photo by Guilherme Stecanella on Unsplash

“Everyone has talent. What’s rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.”

― Erica Jong

All my life, people told me that I had a talent, but no one could identify it. I learned fast. That’s about it. My hands were in many jars. I’ve been a technical professional, but ultimately, I’ve worn many other hats.

What is my talent exactly? I’d never set out to find it. I came from a poor, immigrant, and paternalistic household. I pretty much spent all my time trying to make a life for myself, never thinking that I was even entitled to find my talent.

Finding talent is really for the rich and well-to-do. Finding talent is for all the trust fund babies who never had to worry about making a living.

Instead, I focused on simply going one step further in my education. Then, I focused on going one step further in my career. Finally, now, I’m focused on going one step further in my family life.

Life is a series of stages. I’ve walked many stages of my life, never thinking I was even entitled to find my talent.

Until now. Now, I’m pursuing a creative career. That alone is scary, to say the least. I’ve been a technical person all my life.

Some days, I wake up thinking that I must’ve been insane to believe that this could all work out.

But, the truth is that I didn’t find my talent. My talent found me.

Writing has always been easy for me in any language. Every time life dealt me terrible cards, I wrote or I read other people’s writing. When I was bored, I wrote and recited poetry. When I was happy, I wrote.

Without acknowledging it, for the last 20 years, I wrote all the time.

I wrote code. I wrote technical documentation. I wrote business emails. I wrote presentations.

I never thought it even required talent. I thought anyone could just sit down and write.

I was wrong.

When I started writing every day, I realized that not everyone can write daily. It takes someone who won’t get bored writing every single day.

Often, topics have been written already. A good writer will find an angle into the topic that no one else has found before.

Only a writer who is intensely interested in writing will want to find that angle. Only that writer will understand the beauty in language. To convey the same concepts using a set of the original language is an art that only a writer will appreciate.