Talent.

My very first reaction, in a brain storming exercise, to the word “talent” was, without any hesitation: “unfairness.”

Since time immemorial, talents have been given away to individuals, following a seemingly unfair pattern. Take the case of Tom, Dick and Harry, for instance. They were rewarded 5 talents, two and 1 respectively. On the face of it, it looks like it was an exercise in giving away gifts regardless. But surely there must have been an evaluation process prior to the judgment of who is given what, as can be deciphered from the end-tail of the famous story.

Investing 5 to gain yet another 5, is, in simple economic jargon, a 100% gain. Same as making a profit of 2 on an outlay of 2. But any sum kept hidden away in an apparently safe hiding place does not gain any interest, and 2 talents kept there would end up with a 0% yield.

For the sake of argument, let’s juggle a little with the plot of the story.
We still share 5 talents, 2 and 1 to the same three investors, but in a different order, giving Tom 1, Dick again 2 and Harry 5. After the time that the capital needs to mature, the dividends, on a percentage basis, would be considered to remain the same, that is, Tom gains another 1 on the original 1, ending up with 2, Dick another 2 on an original of 2, both making again a 100% profit. Once more, Harry, even though rewarded 5 talents instead of just 1, does not invest wisely and his percentage yield comes again to 0%, ending up once again with no growth at all.

Therefore, the end result of the mazimization of talents does not depend on the amount, or to stay on track with the example in hand, on the number of talents available, but depends entirely on the personal abilities to make talents work. My idea of unfairness vanishes on the strength of these arguments.

It is universally accepted that we are all endowed with marked natural innate abiliites, otherwise known as talents, and it is up to every one to make talents work, no matter what. Talents have the power of growing into treasures, or fizzling out into nothingness, depending on the flair of the owner’s disposition and aptness.

Making the most of our talents is indeed a challenge.

Take it.

Otherwise the bard’s lines run the risk of realization, because he believes that,

“Full many a gem of the purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom’d caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And wastes its sweetness on the desert air.”

Let it not be so.

Please go back to my portal. Click the link below:

http://www.culturedomain.com