Talent

How much would you pay to play basketball like Michael Jordan, to sing like Luciano Pavarotti, to hit a baseball like Babe Ruth, to play chess like Bobby Fisher, to compose like J.S. Bach, to act like Audrey Hepburn, or to swim like Michael Phelps?

Talent is something that cannot be purchased or stolen. It is organically grown, and it cannot be given to someone or taken away. Through toiling away endless hours, one acquires something much more precious than a sum of money in exchange for their labor. They have something that is beyond price and of extreme value.

I vaguely remember a quote from a speech I heard at a conference that went something like this, "How lucky we are to live in a time of such great technological advancement. The richest pharaohs in Egypt would have traded all the riches of their kingdoms to spend even twenty minutes in an airplane, soaring above the clouds."

As we refine, treasure, develop, and polish talent, it can only grow in its effectiveness and beauty. We are able to soar to the greatest heights of human emotion. We are richer than the pharaohs. We become the envy we once sought. The owner of the most refined talent is indispensable, irreplaceable. Rich and poor seek out the talented and ask them to impart even a tiny portion of their gift. Others imitate the most talented, while the most talented imitate no one. They are free, completely unrestricted. They forge new paths, explore unchartered territory, and find places that few people in history have ever seen.