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Here’s why talentless people succeed professionally
A new study has found that talent doesn’t contribute to success. Passion and hard work and doing what you love is far likelier to lead to a successful professional life.
A new study shows how passion for work always trumps any inherent talent one may have. Young people are more likely to be risk-takers.
More than half of working Americans feel disengaged from their jobs, according to Gallup’s latest State of the American Workplace poll. Unenthusiastic, uncommitted, and uninvolved, male and female workers alike are now, more than ever before, unlikely to be “doing what they love” at work. Should you pursue your passion or strive toward a secure living?
The Tel Aviv University study finds that the two objectives are not mutually exclusive -- in fact, each feeds the other. Young people with strong callings are more likely to take risks, persist, and ultimately get jobs in their chosen fields, satisfying both their personal and professional career needs.
The researchers also found that those who exhibit a passion for these interests in their teens are more likely to be successful later on, regardless of their inherent talent.
Researcher Daniel Heller said that given the economic reality today, people commonly face trade-offs as they make decisions that pit the two sides of careers - the ‘heart,’ or intrinsic side, and the ‘head,’ or extrinsic side - against one another and so, they wanted to examine people who chose to follow more challenging career paths, such as those in the arts, and assess their chances of ‘making it.’
The study is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
