I fanatically believed in ability but this world toned me down

Didn't we all, as kids were staunch believers in Hard work or Age. We thought (or were made to believe) that with  age(and following guidelines ) we would be able to do anything /everything. How we wished to do one day what our elders had the luxury of doing that time. I for  one (born arrogant that i  am ) backed myself to optimize not just copy. I, for the life of me, could not understand why on earth is the individual not doing it the optimized way. Is he not bright enough to figure that out, Does he really want to optimize that in the first place?

 Reaching the teenage we realized there is something called Talent which discriminates between two equally hard working individuals .Which explained why some people were fast learners than others. We also learnt  to blame it on (lack of ) interest for us not being good at something.Which may not be untrue in most cases but I personally think interest is not just black or white, its all gray. In a way we 'like' what we are good at. Say if someone is the mathematics-bond in his class but on changing the school he finds himself lost between similarly bright mates, chances are his interest will go down. Unless for the rare case, he takes it sportingly and  becomes Zealous from jealous. If even after 2-3 attempts he couldn't redeem himself then sure enough, his 'liking '  would go down. So in a way he just liked the appreciation associated with Maths and not exactly the subject.

Before the end of teenage, we accepted even two equally talented and hard working  individuals can have different outputs.There are other factors too that contribute which (sadly) are becoming important by the day. There is the Upbringing difference which has an important role. Life asked each of different questions and depending upon the responses we are what we are. We are expert in different things  because we had exposure in different things. But surely which of these exposure can be 'cashed' is beyond our control.

There after we stopped realizing.We became acceptors. Reality took its toll. We accepted once and for all, that our contribution to the output only increases our chances for success.There is no direct correlation between effort and results, forget a guarantee. So we had to put blinkers on our eyes lest we choke with frustration .

Entering into the corporate world we woke to the fact that even same outcome can have different interpretations. People will escalate only your negatives and positives will be trifled of. So we were really tempted to join in. Tempted to accept that Life flows in 'streamlined' manner in Corporate world. Every one passes through same point (receiving end of politics ) with same velocity (reaction) before changing ends.

May be a decade or two later, we will realize there is no such thing as 'success' its only peace of mind and health that matter.