Last week I saw a young music star belting it out on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans. His confidence and comfort in the spotlight amazed me. It’s tempting to say “He was born different than me, that’s why he can do that and I never could.”. That might be comforting, but it’s not true.

Not long ago in New York City I visited a small music venue. I watched each singer take the stage for a set, and they were good. I was impressed but how much practice they already had, and how much more practice they would get before ever singing on a big stage. Hundreds of gigs, thousands of hours, that’s the back story.

Every mastered skill, everything that looks like a “gift” has the same back story.

Back to last week and the young star. I looked him up on Wikipedia during the performance. He started performing when he was 4 years old.

It’s not inborn, it’s practice.