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I met my best friend and dental school classmate in Manhattan last weekend and the discussion turned to what takes to be a world class performer. My friend believes that we are born with talent and if we are lucky, then we would have the opportunity to be world class at whatever task that we wanted to be.
I on the other hand, I quoted the literature that says that if you want to become the best at chess, the violin, sports or dentistry, it takes passion, hard work and the ability to practice things that we are not good at.
How can my friend and I be so far apart in our thinking?
If you believe, as my friend does that a person is BORN with talent, intelligence or a skill, then you only have to have the good fortune to be discovered. To me, that is like saying if you play the violin in your basement then a violin teacher might walk past your house, hear you play the violin,discover you and you will become rich and famous. This absolves humans from having any responsibility in becoming very successful.
I believe, like most experts on the subject that some talent is necessary but that endless practice combined with a true PASSION for your subject will most likely result in a person becoming world class and recognized by other experts for their talent.
I was a dentist for 15 years before I started taking large amounts of continuing education. After 7 years of taking 200 hours of education a year, I felt that I was competent in certain dental areas of treatment and I entered the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Smile Contest, the most prestigious clinical contest in the world. I was most fortunate to win the contest in my division which gave me a significant amount of recognition and respect among my peers. Ten years after starting to study endlessly with the best in the world, I started posting my work in dental forums and my colleagues wondered who this 'new dentist' is that is showing his beautiful work.
It does not matter if you are Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Neil Leifer (the famed sports photographer), Frank Spear (one of the top 10 dentists in the world) or my good friend and world class endodontist, Francisco Banchs...each of these people have devoted themselves to EXCELLENCE and EXCEPTIONALISM at the task that they love and are passionate about.
Becoming world class has very little to do with exceptional talent and luck and everything to do with PASSION, DEDICATION AND HARD WORK.
