Difference Between Talent and Skill

Talent and skill are often used in the same sense by people who don’t know the actual meaning of these two words. There is a lot of difference between them and one cannot simply use them in the same context.

Both these words are used in a positive sense and are often seen as compliments. Most of the times you would have heard these terms in professional sports such as cricket, formula 1 and football etc. These qualities can co-exist in any person, but such a situation combinations are rare.

The biggest difference between talent and skill is that the former ability is natural and one doesn’t learn it from others. For example, there are a few people who have extremely good vocals by birth, so they don’t need any professional training to become singers. They can simply go to a talent hunt show and showcase their abilities to become famous. Similarly, there are a lot of other things, which you possess naturally and don’t need to learn through any other means.

On the other hand skill is something which you learn with the passage of time, through experience or training. You might have extremely good pace as a fast bowler, but you need to learn control and the ability to perform in different conditions. For that, you might need to hire a coach or play as many matches as you can to gain knowledge of the sport.

If a person is talented, he/she can become skilful too. However, things don’t work the other way around. You might be extremely skilful, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are a talented bloke as well.

Another difference between these two abilities is that talent is not possessed by everyone, so it is not much common. Even if a person tries extremely hard, he/she cannot become talented in any field.

On the other hand, being skilful is in your own hands. You can learn anything you like, but will have to work extremely hard for it with passion and dedication.

Although being talented is a good thing, it doesn’t teach you much, which is one negative aspect. Compared to that, learning a skill will teach you a lot of lessons and you will become an improved individual overall.