Talent is useless without work ethic and attitude: Harsha Bhogle

In a motivational speech at IIM Ahmedabad in 2005, Harsha Bhogle talks about how talent is not the only ingredient to be successful.

Harsha Bhogle is among the prominent sports commentators of the country, starting his career at the age of 19 with All India Radio, while living in Hyderabad, where he played A-Div cricket. He also represented Osmania University at the Rohinton Baria Tournament.

In a motivational speech at IIM Ahmedabad in 2005, he talks about how talent is not the only ingredient to be successful. “A lot of us place a lot of emphasis on talent, don’t we? I mean we often look at someone who’s talented and say wow. Talent does that to people, it dazzles you. And yet you find that excellence is not about talent alone, in fact, a major part of excellence has nothing to do with talent. And in course of time, once you go beyond a certain level, ability or talent is the most useless virtue to possess. It’s what you do with the talent that matters. Beyond a point, it is an attitude that counts for far more than talent because talent breeds any ego and talent never solve problems beyond a point. I have seen a lot of young cricketers extremely talented who the moment they faced a roadblock did not know what to do because they never had to struggle to succeed. They always used their talent to succeed,” he said.

For example, take Tendulkar, he played 55 games as a 14-year-old without a break, Bhogle remarked. “He would practice for two hours, play a game and then practice for two hours and then fall asleep on the dining table and do that for 55 days – that’s an attitude,” he mentioned in his speech.