We've all seen it -- pictures of our peers staring at us from alumni magazines with lofty titles attached to their names. And perhaps it's made you wonder, if you're anything like me, how these guys jumped ahead and made it to the top while you're still struggling to make it to the next rung in the ladder. Was it in their genes to succeed? An innate talent, perhaps? Connections, maybe? Or, did they find the road to the top a struggle, just like me? In other words, is there any hope for me? Is it talent or is it down-and-dirty hard work that spurns success?

Well, now, let's think about this logically. To put some light on the issue, we need to examine both issues -- talent and hard work -- and see if success is better achieved through one or the other. To do that, we can examine how the removal of one or the other factor would affect the overall rate of achievement in a person's career.

If we take out hard work as a factor and just rely on God-given talent, we find excellent POTENTIAL for success. But, can success be achieved under these circumstances without putting some good 'ol sweat behind that talent? Think about it. We have a genius in front of us with no motivation to succeed. All play no work is their motto. Can that person get very far? The answer is, they can get far; but, it is unlikely that they will STAY that far. Motivation and work are required to maintain success in the same way that fuel is required to MOVE a vehicle. Motivation and hard work are required to build upon any career, and energy must be expended for a career to grow. Much like the laws of physics.

Okay, then. Will hard work be enough to succeed without any God-given talent for a given career. This, too, is unlikely. We can work all we want until the sweat drips down our face, and if we create blunders all along the way because we're just not "good at what we do", the building blocks of success will not be stable enough to create the desired outcome. The foundation of success will be less stable, and the resulting structure will only allow restricted success -- image, if your will, what it would be like to climb a ladder with faulty rungs. Such is the case, here.

By deduction, it appears that the road to success is paved not by talent OR hard work, but by talent AND hard work. Nothing can take the place of talent for a given profession. But, what good is talent if it is not applied? And, it takes work -- hard work -- to make it up that ladder of success.

We've all heard the saying "Practice makes perfect". This is true with anything that we set out to accomplish. The harder we work to perfect a profession or avocation, the better we become at it, and the more successful we are. So it is: talent first, and hard work create the best foundation for success. Now that I figured that out, let me put it to work!