Nathanael Boehm on web user experience design, the Internet, social networking & free wireless

Posted by Nathanael Boehm on July 31st, 2008 in General

I’m in Adelaide at the moment for work and was just talking this afternoon to my colleague I’m travelling with about personal and professional development, life experiences and so on … and just wanted to share some of my thoughts on this.

Some people are born with natural talent in something - be it music, programming, writing, management, training or public speaking. However in my experience natural talent doesn’t mean you’re the best at something or that you shouldn’t bother with working towards furthering that talent.

I would even go so far as to say that people with natural talent in something can be at a disadvantage to those who gain that talent through hard work from the bottom rung.

I used to be very shy. I found talking to people painful and draining. I would get massively anxious about getting up in front of people to talk and present. I just wanted everyone to leave me alone.

But being who I am I wasn’t content with being that person. I recognised a deficiency in my character and a trait that was going to compromise my professional goals.

So I purposely threw myself into the very situations I hated. I started a business when I was 18 years old that gave me plenty of experience in being put in situations with new people in new and unfamiliar environments where the spotlight was very much on me to be able to think on my feet, act professionally, not fumble, talk and present confidently.

I’ve come a long way from being that person I used to be. It was hard work and I started at the very bottom. And I’m still going - which is one of the reasons why I’m here in Adelaide and other cities over the next 2 weeks presenting UI prototypes to project stakeholders. I want to keep honing that skill and I still have a long way to go.

But I’ve seen people who would be regarded to have a natural talent in presenting and public speaking who act in ways or do things that I’ve seen as being negative elements of their character but are just part of their personality that also includes their natural talent. These are things that I haven’t adopted in my personal development while working towards being a good public speaker and presenter.

So to some extent it’s not necessarily a good thing to have a natural talent; there’s still a need to hone that talent, build that talent while at the same time identifying and stripping away things that simply came along for the ride but that detract.

Professional development can be as much a subtractive process as an additive one.

Tags: professionaldevelopment, skills, talent