Are we born with talent, or can it be developed throughout time with dedication? While some might say that individuals are born with talent. At the same time, skills are developed through a lifetime of education, training, mentorship, and/ or experience; I think we also need to consider how we measure success. I find success a challenging metric to be quantified. I’ve learned that it needs to be put into context in terms of objective and time. Perhaps we want to successfully prepare a dish for a family reunion next week, finish a half-marathon in the next six months, or pay off a house mortgage in the next ten upcoming years. 

I’ve provided consulting to one of the world’s largest investment companies in my previous life, and they used to say that pain plus reflection equals evolution. Basically, companies need to improve constantly, and no matter what the transformation is, things will not be perfect. It is paramount to learn from your mistakes to improve continually. And transformations often take a long time, so companies also set up maturity models. 

Objectives, targets, and successes are taken into context based on where you are at that moment. That’s because if analyzed purely by themselves, outcomes sometimes might not make much sense, but when put into context, good enough can be a measure of acceptable success at many times. Did six out of ten people like that dish you’ve prepared based on your limited experience? Did you have to make constant stops while running that half-marathon? Or did you miss payments or refinance your mortgage due to a job loss until the total payoff?