Why are talented people lazy

Salespeople with mediocre skills and natural abilities and an unmatched capacity for hard work will always do better than a naturally talented lazy salesperson. A salesperson with natural grace and charm and high rapport makes selling look like magic. When they have the pedigree, and when they have the vocabulary, they look like an unstoppable force. They look good, sound smart, and they know how to sell. They can open, close, diagnose, negotiate, and differentiate themselves and their company.

And this is the curse of the talented; talented people go through life putting in minimal effort and are happy to pass through life easily. They develop a sort of belief of entitlement over the years, feeling that things ought to be handed to them simply because they were blessed with a higher I.

And so comes their slow and painful downfall. It starts in kindergarten with learning to read and then goes through elementary school. Over the years those deemed to be talented form habits — poor study and work habits. The easier they get good grades, the less they will push themselves and the less they will come to understand the incredible importance of working hard and of acting in order to get results.

They will cruise on through high school and possibly even college and then they are thrown into the real world — a world that could not care less about talent, but instead judges people by the results that they are able to produce. Because they have spent the entirety of their lives running on low gears, they are incapable of pushing themselves for long enough to produce the necessary results that are required of success.

Those that never had things come their way easily, those that had to put a real effort towards getting those good grades, those that had to spend hours forcing themselves to study and forcing themselves to learn, have learned how to work most efficiently and are the ones that begin to produce more consistent positive results.

No matter how talented you believe yourself to be, no matter how quickly you can learn, the same truth remains: no person is born a master. Mastery is not something that most of us are too familiar with.

It is not something that is emphasized or stressed in school. The highly active group got easily bored when having to sit still and observe their abstract thoughts. Instead, they preferred to stimulate their minds with active tasks, like sports and other physical activities. That certainly doesn't add up. But part of the problem might have to do with how we view laziness itself; it's very possible that the things we associate with laziness are actually not so indicative of laziness at all.

Bill Gates has often been quoted as saying, "I always choose a lazy person to do a hard job, because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it. Many obsessively critical thinkers a. So perhaps hiring a lazy person isn't the worst idea after all. They're likely to be strategic thinkers who can come up with smart shortcuts, ways to eliminate problems, save time and contribute new, innovative ideas to the company. Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short," is nothing if not smart and successful, and he hasn't shied away from being called lazy.

In fact, he attributes much of his success directly to being lazy. Lewis' perception of laziness is what one might call "false laziness": the fact that his laziness contributed to his success debunks the negative stereotypes being a lazy person. This is especially likely for those who have a perfectionist streak. Solution: Be self-compassionate about your internal reactions and understand where they come from, but also learn to genuinely appreciate what diverse minds bring to a team.

If a lot of your self-esteem rests on your intelligence, it can be very difficult to be in situations that reveal chinks in your armor. That might be working with people who are even more skilled or intelligent, or receiving critical feedback, or taking a risk and failing. Any situation that triggers feeling not- smart is experienced as highly threatening. The smart person may even seek to avoid those situations, which ultimately holds the person back.

Solution: Take an objective view of the benefits of working with people who are, in some respects, smarter than you. Remember, iron sharpens iron. Develop relationships with people who you trust to give you helpful constructive feedback. The more you become accustomed to receiving critical feedback from people who believe in your overall talents and capacities, the easier it will become. Smart people get bored easily.

Being smart is not exactly the same as being curious, but if you have both these qualities you might find yourself becoming easily bored with executing the same behaviors over and over. Some types of success stem from creativity, but other types come from becoming an expert in a niche and performing a set of behaviors repeatedly.

This can end up being less lucrative than finding a niche and repeating the same formula, but that might seem too boring or unchallenging to you.