Let me start off by being my usual self, objective and open-minded.
It's a blessing for the following factors:
- Ability to achieve something extraordinary and perhaps for the greater good - For example Ian Thorpe who is very gifted the ability to swim well and attained the glory. He has also used that fame for the greater good in channeling his efforts in charity work. Others include Michael Jordan, Jet Li, Richard Gere, Angelina Jolie and the late Princess Diana
- Ability to scale greater heights and attained personal growth which may have a domino effect to those around the person - For example Stephen Hawkings, Albert Einstein, Alexander Bell and the Wright Bros.
- Complacency due to snobbishness and subsequent downfall- A person may consider oneself to be unique from others and lead to exploitation. Hence, that person may look down on those unfortunates. The obvious example I can think of is Adolf Hitler.
- Side effect/Overdo of the ability that turns into a weakness/backfire - A gifted athlete who relies to much on his/her gift lost out others who may not be as gifted but are determined and diligent.
One obvious gift that I have (very much like my dad, my uncle and, I know of, a cousin) is my memory.
Advantages - Ability to BS in exams by linking logical factors (which I aced thru the History paper in the public exams, to my surprise), to remind others on their schedules (friends and family), walking telephone book/share market info (that's my dad and/or my uncle)
Disadvantages - Having a wonderful memory can sometimes be frustrating and/or vengeful due to past events, conversations and news that may hurt someone's feeling at best and ruin a friendship/relationship at worst when blurted out unintentionally (I had been thru that myself, so had my dad and uncle of which I have seen it materialised).
In sports, I know of a few of my friends are gifted in some ways or another. They were complacent and lazy while the unfortunates who gave their best in training and improving themselves technically and physically, were able to give them a beating or at least a worthy challenge! I'm not gifted with height and the abilities to glued to water and being "floaty" for swimming. I made up by giving my all in training and striving to perfect my techniques. If a swimmer could put in 7 sessions a week, I'll put in 9-11 a week and spent additional days figuring out the little things like at the reaction time on plunging block, turnings, finishings and even strength-building.
So, what's your position in this issue? As for me, I guess a good balance with self-control may minimise, but not eliminate, the cons.
1 comment:
It all comes down to choice. All human beings are gifted in one way or another. Whether we make the most of our gifts, or even which gifts we want to make the most of, is our own personal choice.
And unfortunately society dictates that some gifts are more valuable than others. Some are gifted in helping others. But I'd say 99.99% of these gifted people are not recognised. On the other hand, some are gifted in making money, whether through cunning or an intuition in making decisions. They are revered in our society because money is revered in our society.
There's no right or wrong answers here. All we can do is be happy while trying to live our life as ethically as possible.
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