There are four things that kill highly talented people: yea, five that bury them:

1. Pride after success

This often starts when a person becomes aware of his or her talents. He sees that he can do certain things in ways people around him can’t readily do, not necessarily because of his preparation. It is one of the vices that impede many talented people from fully expressing their potential.

Also, when he begins to get recognition for the things he’s doing right, the tendency is for him to bask in that euphoria for so long that he forgets the place of hard work. So, he stops learning or training, stops following rules and stops growing. The result is the freezing of his talent or a complete waste in a maze of inconsistencies.

Pride is often considered the biggest killer of success, and that’s partly true. I say “partly” because pride always precedes destruction, but some of the points listed below can be as dangerous if not more.

Pride can also breed jealousy and envy. Now, those are deadly combinations.

2. Shame after failure

This is a major killer of talented individuals. Because of several successes that they’ve recorded, talented people often don’t understand what it means to fail. So, when faced with failure, they withdraw into their shells to bemoan their state.

Some go even farther by disbelieving themselves and what they’re capable of accomplishing. So, you’ll hear things like “I don’t think I’m talented at all. I don’t have what it takes to do this. If I were talented, I wouldn’t have failed.” Others end up depressed and unable to try again.

Unfortunately, what they don’t realise is that even the most successful people in life failed several times and still fail. No matter how talented you are, life will present a stark reality to you: “You can only get as far as here with your talent. To go beyond this point, you have to pay some dues.” It’s now left for the talented person to pick himself up, believe in what he’s got and go back to learn why he failed, improve on it and bounce back. It’s easier said than done for some of them.

3. Procrastination instead of being proactive

Yes! This point is so crucial. There are a few things that waste talent and life as procrastination.

As a talented person, one thing you must recognise is that your talents are NEVER enough; they’re not sufficient on their own to catapult you to the height you dream of. 

If you played for the amateur football club on your street and competed with the next street, chances are that you’ll win easily because you don’t follow strict rules and maybe the other players aren’t as skilful as you are on the ball. But when you begin to compete on the state or national level, you’ll soon discover that there are many talented and skilled players everywhere who have mastered the art of dribbling, defence and scoring.

So, added to talent is hard work, consistent training, and a winning mindset. But some very talented people procrastinate a lot. They’re never available to work on their talents and improve on their weaknesses.  

Procrastination is like not adhering to a treatment regimen because you feel that the disease condition isn’t worth the stress. Well, you’ll take that therapy later but maybe at a higher dosage and for a longer period because in the meantime the disease condition has worsened.

Take the pains now to train yourself, or else your talents won’t amount to much.

4. Doubt & Fear

Doubt could be an effect of the second point (shame after failure). So, a talented person doubts his ability to perform because he failed on his first attempt. He doubts his potential, vision, intelligence, preparation and ultimately himself. When doubt takes root, it is crippling.

Closely related to this is fear, which can have the same root as doubt but may also arise in the absence of failure. A talented person can have unhealthy fears that could easily vanish if he consistently takes steps towards his goals. Some of these fears may be a result of what happened to others, or they could be completely imaginary. If you wait until all your fears are allayed before taking a step, you’ll remain at a spot. Courage is not waiting for fears to disappear, it is taking a step even when you feel the surge of fear.

However it develops, when fear dominates, talent shrinks, and its carrier becomes paralysed. The talented person feels like an insect caught in a cobweb, and despite all attempts to extricate himself from those silks, he ends up winding himself more in the same.

Such fears include the Fear of not being good enough; Fear of how people will see him; Fear of performing at high levels; Fear of Failure; Fear of managing success; Fear that people will discover that I’m not good enough after all.

These and many other fears make several talented people waste their talents in local leagues when they should be plying their trade internationally.

5. Thinking of and living for what other people think

This one is a brutal killer, in fact, it also buries the individual.

Many exceptionally talented people are wasting away because of what they think other people think about them. And often, people aren’t even thinking about those things they think they’re thinking – Sorry for the play with words.

Many people you meet are busy with their lives, worrying about their problems and seeking ways to solve them. The few who spend time discussing you, in many cases, are not pivotal in your success journey. So, you should worry less about them and focus on harnessing your talent.

I’ve seen other talented people who believe all the negative opinions and views of their friends, colleagues, and people they trust. Such opinions weigh on them to the point where they prefer to be a shadow of who they should be. Within they know what they are capable of, but without they can barely express it because other people tell them that they can’t be more.

Then, there’s a category of people who live to please others by not expressing their talents. They feel that being average is synonymous with humility or that expressing their talents would discomfort those around them. So, they prefer to shrink until further notice. Well, further notice never arrives, and they die never using those talents.

Happy are those who overcome these five vices, for they shall manifest their talents to the fullest.

What other killers have you observed? Feel free to share them with me below in the comment section.