In my entire life I’ve only done one drawing that I’m anywhere near proud of. But that was enough to change the way I thought about “talent”… Forever.
Everything else I’ve ever drawn or painted has been rubbish. I just assumed that I didn’t have the talent for it.
When I was growing up I’d watch my sister draw beautiful pictures seemingly effortlessly. My brother was pretty good too.
What they were doing looked pretty simple. But every time I tried it things just came out wrong.
I accepted that this was just the way things were. And I held that belief as a child and all the way through my teenage years.
After school I set off around the world. I stopped off in various places along the way and had all sorts of experiences. Good and bad. Exciting and dull.
Eventually, I found myself in Beijing, visiting a cousin who was there for work.
He was reporting on China’s economic situation and it was fun to help out where I could. I remember doing research on yak production in Tibet, for example.
Then my cousin went away for a few days.
I was alone in an unfamiliar city. I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t speak the language. (And this was back when most Chinese would have never seen a Westerner)
So I looked for ways to occupy myself. And one of the ideas I had was to draw.
I just wanted to entertain myself. I had no idea this would change the way I saw the world forever.
You see, I expected to be rubbish as usual. But I actually produced something that was many times better than I could ever have imagined.
Here’s why…
Because I had so much time to fill I went slowly. I gave it my full attention.
I really looked at what I was drawing.
(I chose to draw a harmonica. And I can still picture it exactly. The specific angle that I drew it from. It’s as though the drawing itself is still etched into my mind.)
And I really thought about how to put lines on the paper to capture that.
This was the first time that I’d ever put so much effort into drawing.
Every previous time I hadn’t really tried hard. And the more I got to believe that I wasn’t really good at drawing, the less point there seemed to be in trying hard.
I’d sabotaged myself with the self-fulfilling prophecy that drawing was all about *talent*. But I was actually more than capable of producing something good. I just had to give it my full attention and really focus.
But it took an extreme situation to get me to apply that effort.
Of course, that wasn’t the start of a great artistic career. It simply taught me that I could make massive progress if I put the effort in. And if I stopped believing the myth that I somehow lacked talent.
Now art never spoke to me the most. So I have applied my effort and practice to other things instead in the decades after that (at various times: music, tennis, writing, and more).
But that lesson has always stayed with me. A constant reminder that you’re capable of much more than you realise if you’ll only believe in yourself, put in the required effort, and direct it in an effective and productive direction.