A short motivational talk by Dean Graziosi contrasting natural talent ('gifted') with persistent effort ('grit'). Graziosi argues that visible success usually hides years of hard work—practice, repetition, persistence—and encourages listeners to stop attributing others' success to innate gifts, to seek roadmaps/mentors, and apply grit to overcome obstacles and achieve goals.
Hey, everybody. Dean Graziosi, welcome to the Weekly Wisdom. It's an honor and a pleasure to have you here. You know, what I want to talk about right now is something I just wrote in the last chapter of my book. So I'm giving you a little tease of what I'm working on right now. And I'm almost done. It's this, hands down, best book I ever written. But we'll get to that in time. It's not going to be out for a little while now, but I wrote a section called Gifted Verse, one grit. And I think we have the biggest illusion possible in today's world where we think when we see someone successful, successful at sports, successful at piano, you know, a child prodigy, dancing millionaire, love whatever it takes. We think they were gifted with something special. And yes, is somebody 7 foot tall and can play basketball gifted? Sure, they got some assets, but if you look and dig and look behind the curtain of every successful person I know, it was the grit that got him there. You know, when Michael Jordan was the best basketball player of all time, you know, was he gifted? Sure, but he got cut from high school basketball. But when you look behind the curtain, no one shot more foul shots than that guy. Thousands and thousands of foul shots. And they said when he. He would say that when, you know, I was lucky enough to have dinner with Michael Jordan, he said when in his sleep, he used to just imagine shooting foul shots. That guy was in the gym when everybody else left. You look at Peyton Manning, what an amazing career. What a way to go out, right? And just an incredible dude. But I talked to my good buddy Trent Shelton, who played for Peyton Manning, and he said at the end of the day, when everybody was done and they got in the locker room, got dressed to go do their thing, Peyton Manning stayed there and he watched the tapes. And summertime, when everybody left, he would stay and work out and help all the rest of the team. It was the grit. Yeah, he was gifted with something, but the grit got him there. You know, when you look at a child prodigy piano player, you think, oh, my God, look what they were born with. You don't realize that kid practices 10 hours a day compared to every other kid trying practices two hours a day. So why am I sharing this is because I don't want you to be delusioned when you see other people getting ahead, that they were gifted with something, that something happened great for them, that success fell in their lap. You see an actor, you know, when he's on, an actor comes on, or an actress Comes on and it's their first movie and it looks like, wow, overnight stuff, stardom, good for them. Then you go and you see the behind the scenes and they started waitressing and working three jobs and sleeping on floors at friends house and they took summer stock and did all this stuff and it looks like they had overnight success. Guys, I want to tell you something. Overnight success is very rare. Even though the world perceives that, especially social media. You just see the happy smiles, you see the fun, you don't see the grit. And when I say grit, I mean the work behind it. So here's what I want to share today. Stop thinking other people are gifted. If you've ever had that thought, that delusion, even if it's subconsciously in there, you see somebody go, oh well, get rid of the wells and know that you were gifted with everything you need to take your life to that next level. And what it takes, it takes some grit. It takes you overcoming the obstacles in your way instead of an obstacle. Think of it as an opportunity to learn. Think of it as a challenge and fight for what you want. You know, when I look back at my life, I've been blessed to have so many great accomplishments. But man, if you knew all the hardships and the grit and the sleepless nights and the working 20 hour days that I had to put in, I did. It didn't happen overnight. And if I've ever said success and being wealthy or happy happens with a flip of a switch, then I apologize. Or if someone else tells you, it's a lie. If you get the right tools, if you get the right capabilities, which so many of you have access to with my courses and books and other people and other mentors. When you find the path, when you get the treasure map, then take the grit to go on the journey. If even, even with a treasure map you see all these great movies like Indiana Jones, back in the day, he had to still go through everything and go through hell and back to get to the end result. That's the grit. So here's what my message is for today. Get the treasure maps, get the roadmap, get the recipes from the people that are living it bigger and better than you. And then get the grit. Get in there, get your hands dirty, get in the game. Fail. The best way to get to where, usually where you want to get is on the other side of a challenge. It's on the other side of that so called obstacle. Power through it. Focus on where you want to go. Follow the map, but get your hands dirty. Get your knees dirty. Fight for it. You deserve it. There's a next level waiting for you. Take it. I'm Dean Graziosi. Thanks for watching the Weekly Wisdom as always. You can grab my New York Times bestselling book for free@deansfreebook.com that's deansfreebook.com See you next week.
