Is talent alone, understood as a predisposition to do certain things better than others, enough to achieve widespread success? Not necessarily. Patience, determination, hard work and lifelong learning are a much greater guarantee of success in pursuing our passions in life.

Small steps to great achievements

The 19th century thinking of talent as something we are born with and don’t need to develop is fortunately no longer common. Everyone is born with certain aptitudes, but without learning, practice and hard work, it is difficult to achieve satisfactory results in any field. 

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of ‘Outliers: The Story of Success,’ introduced a theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a particular field. Not all scientists agree with him – Gladwell’s study only applied to a certain group of people developing their skills. And even among these people, the time required to achieve similar results varied. On one thing, however, scientists agree with Gladwell: to achieve success in life, talent alone is not enough. Prof. Carol Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University, in her book ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success’ points out the importance of a ‘growth mindset,’ which means that we can develop our skills through hard work, perseverance and lifelong learning. 

In accordance with the idea of lifelong learning, the more we learn, gradually increasing our knowledge and developing our skills, the broader our horizons become and the more we can achieve. This is confirmed by numerous examples of outstanding people who, thanks to their determination and hard work, achieved great success, often starting out at a considerable disadvantage. Their stories have inspired the works of writers and artists for centuries, in which we can look at the heroes’ struggles, hardships, and falls, but also at how they rose, often crowned with spectacular achievements. We decided to write about them – both real and fictional heroes – who despite adversity, strived for constant development and did not give up on their passions, their perseverance serving as inspiration. Below are eight stories, although this list could be much longer…

1. “My Brilliant Friend”Tetrology

Elena Ferrante’s saga tells the story of the friendship of two women. Elena and Lila live in a poor neighbourhood of Naples. Both capable and eager to learn, they face many adversities from an early age. Their parents do not want to educate them, as girls are expected to finish a few grades and then go to work to help the family. Elena’s teacher manages to convince her parents to continue her education, Lila is not so lucky. The former is gifted with extraordinary intelligence, but it is the latter who is considered a genius – she is able to learn very difficult things on her own, which others spend years of work to master. Although learning does not come as easily to her as it does to Lila, Elena proves that being born brilliant, or outstandingly gifted, does not guarantee anything. As we read the subsequent volumes, we see that Elena, through hard work, hours spent with books and determination, achieves a status that at first seems completely out of her reach. She faces many obstacles on her way – her background is pointed out to her, the fact that she grew up in an area where a dialect was spoken, which she finds difficult to eradicate, as well as the fact that she is a woman. However, she becomes an established writer and academic.

2. “Joika”

In 2024, the film “Joika” was released in theaters. This is a fact-based story of an American ballerina who managed to get into the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. The girl’s dream is to join the company of dancers of the Bolshoi Theater. Upon arriving in Moscow, Joy finds out that this is almost impossible, if only for the fact that she is not Russian. However, Joika, as her coach calls her, insists that she will achieve this and doesn’t give up. Although it eventually turns out that dancing at the legendary theatre is not at all as glamorous as she imagined, and she eventually leaves this toxic environment, watching her struggle for recognition from a hostile environment is incredibly inspiring. Joy spends hours each day mastering the demanding moves, arriving at perfection, and yet she keeps practicing. Her work is strenuous, often painful, but it yields amazing results and ultimately makes Joy, above all, prove to herself that she is unbeatable. 

3. Susan Sontag

The eminent intellectual, Susan Sontag, realized at a very young age that everything read, every film seen, every inspiring conversation is a learning experience and an opportunity to broaden her horizons. Thanks to reading her diaries, we know that even at a very young age, she strongly disciplined herself. For example, she made long lists of books that she absolutely had to read. She attended to her development every day and did not stop learning until her death. Her work continues to inspire generations of artists, intellectuals and activists to reflect and develop themselves.

4. “The Queen’s Gambit”

“The Queen’s Gambit” is a novel by Walter Tevis, although the story he tells is more widely known thanks to the Netflix series starring Anne Taylor Joy. Beth is an orphan who discovers a talent for playing chess. Importantly, however, this is not a story about a genius who becomes a chess master. Yes, Beth has a special aptitude, but in order to measure herself against the best chess players in the world, she has to spend many hours practicing. Many times she is on the verge of squandering her talent because she is prone to substance abuse and self-destruction. However, when she fully realizes that only with persistent work, both on the game and on herself, can she achieve what she dreams of, she sets about it with admirable determination. 

5. “Forrest Gump”

The film with Tom Hanks in the role of Forrest Gump is a story about a boy with a low IQ, who, first thanks to his mother’s determination and then his own, achieves incredible success in life. Despite his intellectual and physical limitations, Forrest persistently tries and does not give up, allowing him to become not only famous, but also wealthy, and above all – because this is really his main motivation – loved. 

6. “Lessons in Chemistry”

The protagonist of the novel by Bonnie Garmus is Elizabeth Zott, a talented chemist struggling with prejudice in 1960’s male-dominated science. Although her passion is chemistry, she unexpectedly becomes the star of a TV cooking show, where she uniquely combines cooking with science, while inspiring women to think independently and fight for their rights. Zott is a symbol of strength, intelligence, courage and determination, as she returns to being a scientist after leaving television. Although the book and series tell the story of a specific character, it also recaps the situation of an entire generation of women living in the 1960s who had to overcome various obstacles to fulfill their professional dreams.

7. “Million Dollar Baby”

The film tells the story of thirty-year-old Maggie, whose passion is boxing. The woman wants to succeed in professional sports, so she goes to ask for help from her trainer, Frankie Dunn. The man initially rejects her proposal because he believes that Maggie, first of all, is a woman, and secondly, in his opinion, it’s too late for her. The character of the talented boxer is a moving story of a person who overcomes all odds to achieve what she wants. The road to success turns out to be titanic work, which Maggie undertakes with incredible determination, proving that the daily improvement of skills is the best road to success. 

8. Nicola Tesla

The brilliant inventor and visionary struggled with many difficulties for almost his entire life. He came from a poor family, but thanks to his passion for science as well as his hard work, he was able to travel to the US, where he would work on his inventions. Tesla fought tenaciously for his place in the world of science, but was misunderstood by many of his contemporaries, causing, among others, financial problems which he had to resolve.s. Some of his ideas were passed over in silence, and some were attributed to other people. Nevertheless, Tesla continued to work hard and create, so that today he is considered one of the most important inventors in history.