by Heather Baldwin - January, 2022

Years ago, a fan watched South African golfer Gary Player hit balls down the fairway. Awed by the golfer’s legendary distance and accuracy, the fan remarked, “I’d give anything to hit balls like that.” Player’s response is memorable: “No you wouldn’t,” he said. “You’d want to hit a golf ball like me if it was easy.” 

Player explained that his skill was the result of many years spent getting up at 5:00 a.m., hitting 1,000 balls, going into the clubhouse to bandage his bleeding hands, then going back out to hit another thousand balls. In other words, he had worked a lot harder than most people are willing to work, for a lot longer. One can only surmise that at this point, the fan lost interest in hitting like Player.

The story reminded me of an interaction I had with a piano student years ago. At the time, we had a young man in our studio named Michal (pronounced Mee-hall). Michal, whose impressive performances were the closing act of our recitals for a period of time, was fervently admired by all the younger students. Everyone wanted to play like Michal. 

Following one recital, a young pianist who was early in his musical journey came up to me and said, with a mixture of awe and longing, that he wished he could play the piano like Michal. Thinking to pass along some encouragement, I told him, “You can! Michal practices for one hour every day. If you do the same, you’ll be there in just a few years.” 

Rather than becoming excited that he now held the key to success, the student’s face fell. “An hour?” he groaned. “I don’t want practice that long.” And he walked away dejected. 

He wasn’t the only one. During the years when Michal was part of our studio, I had many variations of that same conversation. Call me a slow learner, but it took me awhile to figure out that while everyone wanted to play like Michal, almost no one was willing to work like Michal to get there.

We’ve all had the experience of watching someone perform – in music, in sports, in academics – and believed they were gifted in a way the rest of us weren’t. That they were born with an ability to execute a skill at a level far above average. Quite often, that gifting is simply a willingness to work a whole lot harder than everyone else!