126. Talent is secondary

Dear Erik,

I have a different opinion when it comes to talent and women. To start with women, I certainly don’t believe that women in Western countries are born with a disadvantage. Society and culture can impose restrictions, but by no means do women need to conform to them. Here in the West, that’s an individual choice. What does exist is a massive disparity between the number of female managers in the Netherlands, especially when compared to Eastern European countries. In the Czech Republic, the ratio of male and female managers is equal (50-50). In the Netherlands, the ratio is skewed: 20% female managers against 80% male managers. The Dutch are lagging behind considerably compared to Eastern Europe.And then there’s talent. Great if you have it, but ultimately not required for success. You’ve probably heard of Willy and Rene van de Kerkhof, two former football greats who played for PSV and the Dutch national team. I spoke to Rene a few years ago about his football career and I asked him what he and his brother did to make it that far. He said: ‘my brother and I weren’t all that good. Many of our friends were considerably better. But we wanted to make it as pros so badly that we trained two to three times as hard. And in the evenings, we’d watch as many football matches as we could, something we kept doing until we retired. That’s how you become and stay the best’. Johan Cruyff: ‘of course I’m better than anyone. I’ve touched the ball at least ten thousand times more than any other football player in existence’. Ronaldo was the only pro player who visited Nike in America when he heard that his competition would be using one of Nike’s new balls. He spent his entire holiday practicing with it. It makes sense that he was the best player back then with that kind of attitude, right?

The big names in sports do whatever it takes to become the best and stay the best. Talent is secondary to all of this, and I believe it is only useful at the very start of one’s career. By working amazingly hard, with complete focus, you overtake those with talent very rapidly.

Talent is by no means a guarantee that you’ll make it. With or without it, if you want to reach the top and stay there, you’ll have to put the work in. I believe Michael Jordan once said the same thing. You need a ruthless attitude to keep improving yourself, to maintain yourself at the highest level. You’ll need to worship success to do that. The ends justify the means. Having success provides you with great satisfaction, especially when it’s accomplished after a lot of hardship and struggle.

I still remember that you began your career with a stockbroker, where you learnt about telephone sales, and how by hard work, a lot of patience and learning, you quickly made it to partner status at another company, which you subsequently grew with a lot of passion. Maybe you have a lot of talent, but that was definitely not the decisive factor.

Regards,

Gerard