Talent or Hard Work?

[Mochan]

To address the original question, I honestly think it's a moot point. There are many ways to break into any industry of work; some people have obtained the careers they have due to natural ability and being in the right place at the right time; others have gone through years of training and worked their way up. You can go far either way, but you have to put the effort in or nothing will come to you at all, period.

I know nobody likes 'that' person who just quotes people, but I just gotta quote Merodi's point here because I'm in agreement.

There's no one definite way that will launch your career. It's whatever works for you. If you have to work your ass off in order to get to your dreams, then that's what you gotta do. If you're able to just slide by, then whatever, kudos to you.

[James_The_Composer]

Working hard consistently with emotional ease, healthily, over a very long period of time, is the ultimate talent.

[Sammyman]

I believe that it has to be a combination of both extremely hard work and to never give up and you have to have some acting ability too

[Amanda Lee]

The saying I overuse: The Drive is the talent. Hard work and dedication is true talent and above all strong work ethic is what gets you there.

[jvonm]

On some level, talent is discipline.

If I were to dedicate myself to learning football, I could get good at it. If I were to dedicate myself to learning the trumpet, I could get good at it.

However, my belief as reinforced by my experiences in life is that I would have to expend more effort to get good at football than I would to get good at trumpet because I have natural inclination for music. So, if you take 'talent' to mean a natural aptitude for something, I would say that it can be beneficial.

Does talent only serve to augment your discipline, or does discipline augment your talent? That is to say: either talent is the key and discipline will provide a little boost or discipline is the key and talent will provide you with a little boost. In the specific instance of voice acting as a career, I would agree with Matt and say that discipline can only get you so far. But in terms of your acting ability, it's all about having the fearlessness to commit to the story and the character.

[ProjectTrinity]

Drive and hard work. This is not because those who are naturally talented tend to have given me the stick that was up their butts

With hard work, there is some faith that the person has learned and empathized with everything that comes with making it to the top. People either grow cold of the people around them, or they cherish them as they inch their way to improve their given skill. The struggles you make to improve and impress on a wide scope that comes naturally to others tends to make a difference. (No offense to those who frequently try to make a "balance" in every vs. topic known to mankind. Simply put, that is an optimistically untrue notion.) This isn't to say that those with the natural talent to do what they want to do have it easy. I'd also imagine there are some very interesting situations that could make the natural talent borderline-annoying for them at times. And just like those who worked hard, nothing prevents either end from having to climb the ladder without a bit of luck and connections. Oh, and less people trying to keep you down. That *really* helps everyone. x_x

But yes, I do vastly prefer hard work over natural talent. Though for the sake of time, I wouldn't mind having a natural knack for drawing awesome anime characters. Working towards it seems really, really hard. =p

[MemoriesHope]

Talent comes with hard work.
You can't expect to be good at anything straight away, it all involves practice. Talent is just a development in my eyes.
That is my opinion in a nutshell.

[Moonvamp]

Here is my take on this topic. Sure, having talent may be handy, but if one doesn't exercise that gift with hard dedication or vigorous practice, it's utterly useless. One must possess the determination and drive to showcase the talent. If they basically rely on talent alone, it would only prove most futile in the end.

[silentcomposition]

In the audio entertainment business. (not voice acting)

Both talent, and hard work can be, (and often are) bypassed by having inside connections.
Without those connections, you have to have all three.

- 50% an amazing right place right time scenario. (score an internship with one of the perhaps 4 companies that do audio internships, or score a small production that sells well.)
- 25% Talent/Talent Practice (Diversity of sound/speed of work)
- 25% Portfolio strength (gear knowledge/software knowledge)




For Voice actors.

What's more important than having a ton of stuff worked on, is having 1, or 2 really awesome things to show, versus a billion subpar stuff.


I would say

- 50% Right place right time scenario (local casting call/score a small production that gets attention)
- 40% Good Casting Audition (Energy/Good performance, which requires practice)
- 10% How good last few performances are. (Energy/Good performance/Vocal Diversity)



The right place right time scenario, can often be bypassed by good connections.

These are just opinions.

I still think working hard is a good idea.

[Xephon0930]

I really would like to think about a good amount of talent and hard work is involved in a lot of things in lifwe but with the entertainment industry as it is today,I'm having a lot of second thoughts.