we have a habit of calling people naturally talented simply because we happen to meet them after they've done something a thousand times. when you watch someone at the top of their game, everything looks effortless. their timing is right, their decisions come naturally and their work flows so smoothly that you'd think they were just born with it. but you're seeing the result, not the process. you didn't see the failed attempts, the embarrassing beginnings, the mistakes they had to correct, or the countless times they had to do the same thing before getting it right. meanwhile, you're comparing your first attempt to their thousandth and wondering why you're not as good. you're judging your beginning by someone else's years of practice. sometimes, what we call natural talent is years of work we never got to witness.