Recently I came across this picture on Facebook and felt the need to express my agreement with it. I wrote a post when I shared it, and I've expanded that post into this article.

When I tell people I'm a musical theater major, they often say "wow, you have to be really talented to make it in that business. You have to have IT." But talent is so fucking vague, and so much less than enough. This belief that "talent is all it takes" is a common misconception in the arts. According to well-meaning friends and relatives, talent is inherent, there is no substitute for it, and it's the key factor that determines a person's success.

First of all, how do you even define talent? Is it mere technical skill? Is it "stage presence," charisma, chutzpah, personality? Intensity? An acting teacher once told me that talent is the ability to be true onstage. Doesn't everyone have that truth within them? This is a confusing and stupid word and I hate, hate, hate that every artist I know has this giant fear that whatever talent is is something they inherently lack. Or maybe that's natural. There is a confusion between whether talent means "the ability to make good work," a definition which opens the door to the impossibly subjective and complicated question of what good work is, or whether it means "the God-given gifts in a person's DNA (or not)." I'm ragging mostly on the latter. Talent as skill, however, isn't much better and actually perpetuates the harmful myth that people are rewarded based solely on merit. Especially in the arts, this is a crazy thing to believe. Art isn't linear; there's not always a clear difference between good and bad. And the words good and bad do a disservice to the work, regardless of its quality, because they're so unspecific.

Any way you define it, talent is so much less than enough. As actors and artists, very little in our control. Talent, as a concept, disregards all the things that are, many of which are included on this list. It strips us of any power we do have. Even if you genuinely believe that you are gifted (which nobody 100% does; cockiness is always mixed with fear and insecurity), the insanely hard work necessary to achieve any degree of success is overlooked. Sometimes the most brilliant performers are not the ones putting the work in--but more often, they are, and they are talented because of their hard work. In fact, I know from experience that being complimented on your "talent" after struggling and working your butt off for years feels a little shitty. It's so much more meaningful to be recognized for having actively done something, not just the "gift" you're supposedly born with. And those "talented" people who lack all the other equally, if not MORE important qualities in this list are not the ones who are going to work, because they're not the ones anybody wants to work with. And this is not specific to theater either, not even close. You can have all the talent in the world, but there is no substitute for commitment, passion, and kindness.

And to anyone who has ever felt they are not naturally talented enough, which is just about every artist ever: Having to work harder for what some people come by naturally is a good thing. Not having tons of effortless talent, does not mean you can't craft the work you want to make. I love you and believe in you.