Why having "absolutely no talents" might be a good thing

A few days ago, while we were having dinner, my wife suddenly told me:

“You know, almost everyone I know has some sort of talents. It’s just me that don’t.”

As you may have imagined, I didn’t expect to hear anything like that at all, so I responded with a question:

“What kind of talents are you talking about?”

“Well, all those kinds of arts or science things: some are good at singing, some at drawing, others at math, etc. I just don’t feel like I’m really good at anything.”

“You’re really good at your job, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t really count. It’s just something that I have been studying, and working on for more than ten years. You can’t be bad in something you spend that much time doing.”

“You’re also a good chef. Your food almost always tastes great.”

“But that’s not something I really have a passion on. I mean I like cooking for myself and for family, but that’s it, I wouldn’t take the chance to be the head chef in a Michellin’s star restaurant even if I had it.”

“Okay, but among those people who you said that had “talents”, how many of them really want to be professional singers, or painters, or mathematicians?”

“Hmm, I suppose not many. Most of them are not that good to be professionals. It’s just nice to have those kinds of talents that can help brightening your life from time to time.”

“Let’s imagine something: suppose you have a chance to trade your talent in cooking with something else, say singing or drawing, at the same level, i.e. you can practice at amateur level but have little chances to pursuit a professional career in the field, would you choose to trade?”

She thought about it for a few seconds and responded:

“Maybe no. I still like my ability to cook. For me it’s more important.”

The conversation ended there with my wife became happy again, realizing she was lucky to be good in something she cares about; but then I started remembering an older story: the story of how I struggled during High school, college and even some years after college to look for a field where I can “shine”. And I decided to write this post, because I think like my wife, a lot of you guys out there might not appreciate enough how lucky you are to have absolutely no talent in some (or several) particular fields.

I started to have some liking in programming in grade 7, after I had my first computer. I was pretty good at it, teachers in CS classes during my secondary school and high school were all proud of me and all advised me to pursuit some sort of career in the field (Although the concept of “programmer” was not very popular in Vietnam, where I lived back then, at the time, so most of the career advice I got were related to some sort of “Government CS experts” or “CS teachers”). I thought writing code for computers to run was an interesting job, and since I was good at it, it sounded like a good plan. I would have taken that route if I didn’t have another problem.

And that problem I had may sound a bit weird: I WAS FREAKING GOOD IN TOO MANY THINGS

I’m not bragging but just telling the truth: Among the subjects at school, I only sucked at PE, because I was abit overweight and a nerd (I did not do too good in arts, but not too bad either, and in Vietnam at the time kids stopped having art classes in grade 8, so I didn’t count those in).

“Okay”, you are thinking “let’s just say you’re not bragging (which I totally believe you are), how can being good at all subjects a problem?”

Well, the problem is, when you have too many choices, you will tend to change your mind frequently.

That was exactly what happened to me. Having “talents” in too many fields made me feel like I won a lottery and that I shouldn’t have to work really hard to pursuit anything in life. And computer Science, or any science, didn’t sound like something you just need to set aside a couple of days a month to finish all the homeworks. Besides, almost all of other “talented kids” (yes, I wasn’t the only one at school who was good at almost every subject) chose economics, where “you don’t have to spend too much time studying and can enjoy life”.

Except for the first one or two years, almost every night afterwards until I was about 26, I wondered if my career choice was incorrect. It was true that I didn’t have to work hard in college to get acceptable grades, but a seem-to-be “easy” life turned out to be not really enjoyable. Turned out, the “easy stuff” wasn’t something I really wanted to do with my life (of course, to get to that conclusion wasn’t easy, it took me 8 years of struggling, but I guess we can tell that in a later post).

The conclusion I want to say via this little story is: it is actually a gift to know absolutely that you’re not good at something. If only I wasn’t good at anything but computer programming, I would have chosen it in the first place, and my life might have been much “smoother” (e.g. instead of having first job at 27 and a half, I could have gotten it 5-8 years sooner). If only I wasn’t a brainiac who scored well in everything at school, I would have understood the necessity of working hard, instead of relying on (and then failed by) my “talents”. I was lucky, though, that I learned those lessons before it was too late, but sometimes, in the middle of a night that I can’t sleep (like tonight), I still wonder how pathetic my life would have become if I still thought I had “talents” in everything by now.

So guys and girls, please, don’t be discouraged if you feel like you’re among those people who have no special “talents” (like what my wife felt about herself). Just forget about it, and focus on those few deals that you have chances to get big in. You’ll soon realize how lucky you are.