A gift is a beautiful thing to have. It is an exciting thing to discover, and an invigorating experience to engage with. People who possess great gifts would tell you, however, that a gift is tricky to handle.
Before continuing, though, let me clarify that I am not talking about a physical gift or present. The gift under discussion here is the ability. It is the gift that crowns a person with achievement. I would also like to add that the words gift and talent would be used interchangeably in this copy. Though I do acknowledge the many differences between the two.
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| A sailer |
Men and women at the zenith of their gifts, and at the top of their games, are the most awesome thing to behold. Gifts make people float like cotton wool and weigh even lighter than paper. We are all witnesses to the glorious achievements of many athletes. While some break unbelievable records, others make history. And we admire them. We call them hero's and heroines.
But the story is not always that palatable because it is one thing to discover a gift and another thing to see it to maturity. But a gift while stimulating possesses its own vice and woes.
The irony is that many people see the glory but very few see the other side. With still fewer people understanding the complexity of the endowment.
There is always the making process, and there is also the maintaining process. Both go hand in hand. Presidents of countries don't just appear one day. Prime minister don't just burst on the scene. They start as shadow ministers, but long before that they have been in the mill. And all of them maintained various kinds of visions. They began wherever they found themselves and worked upwards. Often, shadowing mentors and then applying learned principles.
Great athletes, like sailers for instance, work hard, often training in difficult conditions. They discipline themselves to maintain healthy diets. Some stay off milk produce and others forgo best meals just to ensure they stay healthy and competitive for their course.
If you find a man or woman at the top of their game, you can be sure they have spent many lonely hours perfecting their craft. You can be sure they have sacrificed many pleasurable moments to get to where they are. Oh yes, they will always attend engagements of important nature. And they will attend social events but you would hardly catch them expending precious times on inconsequential activities.
There are gifts of influence, gifts of fame, and gifts of great financial standing. Each has the ability to procure their possessors global brand. The talent of athletes, for instance, are quintessential gifts that easily procure global recognition. Trouble-shooters, business men and women with superior acumen, designers, fashion designers
, writers and many of these gifted people could easily transcend national boundaries.
It is only a question of how far one can travel or go with their gift or talent. It is a matter of how much investment one is prepared to make, and a matter of how much sacrifice one is prepared to make.
Then comes most sinister bits like overcoming personal fears and facing external and extraneous threats. Then there are the sceptics, the dream assassins whose aim it is to kill dreams.
Oh yeah, they would create difficult conditions and difficult environments that aspirants would sometimes have to live with. And it is only 'the bold oh yes, and the beautiful', who can scale through them. They may not like a gifted person. They would roll their eyes and make faces. But hey, the booty is for the 'bold and beautiful'. These are the real challenges people have to face to get to their destination. They are the tricky bits of a gift.
There are no brand or global brands that have not faced difficulties. All of them have got stories. Stories of pain and sweetness, stories of difficulties and victories. Stories of almost being extinct and re-emerging. And stories of almost giving up to one of breaking through. These are the real tricky bits of gifts.
