I have been a musician for virtually all of my life. I first begin training in classical guitar when I was six years old. Though I was messing around with a guitar prior to that point in time. From there, I spread out to many other instruments. In other words, I’ve been doing this a long time.
 
As I have been doing this for a long time, I’ve spent much of my life interacting with musicians. Particularly in the 1980s and into the 1990s, a large portion of my friend-base were musicians. So, I was constantly around music and the players who played it. Some were very-very good.
 
The thing that I recognized, even back then, was that there were some players who could mimic the playing of other musicians. Particularly with guitar, I knew several people who would play note-for-note that great passage or that killer lead. The thing was, though they possessed great ability and they could hit every note just as it was played on the record album, they were not great at creating their own style or their own sound or their own vibe. Thus, I realized, ability is different from talent.
 
What is the difference?  A person with ability can imitate what other people have created. A person with talent creates their own sound.
 
Now, this ideology is not limited to music. It really spreads out across all spectrums.
 
As a martial artist, I have witnessed this, as well. There are those who can do the techniques they were taught with pure excellence. They look great! But, for many of them, there is an essence that is missing, as the practitioner is only emulating what they were taught, but not possessing an individualized personal mastery or innovation. They are not creating anything new or revolutionary in their movements.
 
Please keep in mind, I am not insulting anyone with what I am saying here. I am just stating a fact that few people ever consider. There are those who are at the crux of unique and personal, and possibly even revolutionary creation, and then there are those who can imitate that creation. Yet, they create nothing uniquely their own.
 
There are those individuals with ability verses those with talent. Then, there are all the other people who discuss the ability and the talent of others. They talk about what the person with ability can do, and what the individual with talent has created.
 
This is where much of the world’s population finds themselves. You hear it and read it all the time. People speaking about those with ability and talent. As they have neither, they discuss those who do.
 
 Question: Where do you find yourself in this equation? Think about it.