Forget the Myth of Talent
Talent is a placeholder. Genetics is an escape goat. It's something someone uses to explain away what they can't or don't want to understand. It's easy to blame something blameless like genetics, talent, or bad luck for your shortcomings. That's why it's so common.
Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted. They acquired greatness, became "geniuses" (as we put it), through qualities the lack of which no one who knew what they were would boast of: they all possessed that seriousness of the efficient workman which first learns to construct that parts properly before it ventures to fashion a great whole; they allowed themselves time for it because they took more pleasure in making the little, secondary things well than in the effect of a dazzling whole.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Read below a passage from Robert Greene's Mastery:
Think of mastery in this way: Throughout history, men and women have felt trapped by the limitations of their consciousness, by their lack of contact with reality and the power to affect the world around them. They have sought all kinds of shortcuts to this expanded consciousness and sense of control, in the form of magic rituals, trances, incantations, and drugs. They have devoted their lives to alchemy, in search of the philosopher’s stone-the elusive substance that transformed all matter into gold.
This hunger for the magical shortcut has survived to our day in the form of simple formulas for success, ancient secrets finally revealed in which a mere change of attitude will attract the right energy. There is a grain of truth practically in all of these efforts-for instance, the emphasis in magic on deep focus. But in the end all of this searching is centered on something that doesn’t exist-the effortless path to practical power, the quick and easy solution, the El Dorado of the mind.
At the same time that so many people lose themselves in these endless fantasies, they ignore the one real power that they actually possess. And unlike magic or simplistic formulas, we can see the material effects of this power in history-the great discoveries and inventions, the magnificent buildings and works of art, the technological prowess we possess, all works of the masterful mind. This power brings to those who possess it the kind of connection to reality and the ability to alter the world that the mystics and magicians of the past could only dream of.
Over the centuries, people have placed a wall around such mastery. They have called it genius and have thought of it as inaccessible. They have seen it as the product of privilege, inborn talent, or just the right alignment of the stars. They have made it seem as if it were as elusive as magic. But that wall is imaginary. This is the real secret: the brain that we possess is the work of six million years of development, and more than anything else, this evolution of the brain was designed to lead us to mastery, the latent power within us all.
Limitless potential hiding within
The only limit you have is the one you place on yourself. If you toss out the self-imposed shackles, you can work your way towards unlocking your true potential. It's this simple mental shift of intent backed by desire that gave me the means to discover, find, and figure out everything you'll read in the WOTN 3.0. Enjoy! It's my life's work up to this point.
The Ultimate Power
Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure, But it's the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.
- Miyamoto Musashi
Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.
- Alexis Carrel
