I remember sixth grade Arabic class vividly. I remember the feelings of hopelessness and anger when my teacher told me I would never make Advanced Arabic. Languages have always been a weak point in my education - yet that did not give anyone the right to tell me that I couldn't achieve a higher class. From that day onward I promised myself I would be sitting in that class by the end of the year; and soon enough my hard work paid off. This determination stayed with me for the rest of my life, helping me persevere and work harder throughout new challenges. The experience taught me that although I may have lacked a talent, my hard work brought me to where I wanted to be. My hard work surpassed those with talent.

As I began to get more interested in the topic of hard work, I came across a quote from the famous soccer star, Arda Turan. He believed that Cristiano Ronaldo would never reach the success of Lionel Messi since the Argentinian is from “another planet.” According to him, no matter how hard Ronaldo worked he could never reach the talent and skill Messi had to offer. In other words, talent will always come out on top.

This provoked an argument within the football community, that soon transferred to the rest of the world. Could hard-work ever catch up to talent?

Well, that morning I began to ponder the question and came to a definitive answer. As I am an enormous fan of Messi, you would think my answer would be, “Of course not!”. Well, you could not be more wrong. I believe that hard work will surpass the greatest talent. Sadly, the belief that talent is the “end-all be-all” is becoming more and more common, discouraging more and more youth, as they believe that they are not “good enough”.

According to debate.org, out of the 220 people that took part in the debate, 83 believed that success was not possible without talent. How could anyone believe that no matter how hard you work someone will always be better than you?

As I looked deeper into the issue I realized that people believed that all the greats: Michael Phelps, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Conor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather etc., have the most talent in their sport, therefore hard workers can never reach their level. However, what they don’t see is that these are also the hardest working athletes in their sport. They don’t realise that exceptional athletes do have talent, but without the hard work they would never have achieved success.

The famous UFC fighter, Conor McGregor, onced claimed, “There's no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equal as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that is that. I am not talented, I am obsessed.” Conor McGregor has been said to work the hardest in UFC by Bleacher Report, and has even been seen by The Washington Post shadow boxing in the holding room at his recent court trial. He doesn't even rest when he is being prosecuted! It is true that these athletes do have talent, but they are also some of the hardest workers this world has ever witnessed. The best athletes will always work the hardest.

It is true that the greatest athletes do have some talent. However this does not mean that they are unreachable. Anybody can be “the best” if they work harder than anyone else. Think of it as a race. The people with talent have a head start. Although the faster you run (harder you work), the quicker you will catch up and pass the person ahead. So, talent may give people a 20 meter head start in a 1 kilometer race, but hard work will be the end decider. The notion of  “I’m not good enough” is an excuse and fake idea created by people that are afraid of failing or unwilling to work hard.

Unfortunately, young children are growing up believing this. This is affecting youth as they lack the power to believe in themselves in order to succeed.

According to The Business Insider, more than 50% of people aged 18-64 were afraid of trying new things due to their fear of not being “good enough”. This notion is what we are being taught as a society, and  this is affecting us as we grow up believing this. Not only this, but K. Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist, proved that anybody who practices for 10,000 hours can be world class at any activity. This further proves hard work can surpass any amount of talent.

The famous physicist, Albert Einstein, once said, “Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work…” I believe that this quote could not be more true. Talent is helpful when trying to become great at something, yet hard work is what separates a few individuals from the rest of the world. Talent is helpful, it can give people a small advantage and can help people feel more confident, yet it is incomparable to hard work. Nothing but hard work can make you successful. Can you truly say you have never succeeded through pure hard work?