So take all these guys you just mentioned and remove the practice element. Hours in the gym, the court, the mat, whatever. Take away the constant study and these guys don't get to that elite level. These guys may have come out of the womb with the natural ability but without honing it and crafting it they would be just another guy at the Triple AAA level.
Talent isn't rare. The combination of work ethic, drive and talent is very rare.
I am living proof of what? You can judge a person based on some words on a forum?
Millions upon millions work hard. Very few make it to the top of the top. Did Jon "Bones" Jones train harder than Cormier? Jones was destroying the top of the top at a very young age. Why?
Talent. Just like Jordan, Ali, Phelps, Bolt, Armstrong, Coleman and others who were head and tails above the rest. Many very talented and discipline people have tried to beat them but they were special -- even among the chosen few. It's not that they trained harder or took some magic potion. They all do at that level. They had what Quentin Tarantino once described as that certain "something, something."
It may be a bit difficult when it comes to skills but in bbing it's blatantly obvious. Some people train like animals and juice for years and never really become freaks. Others start growing muscles on day one.
Many train just as hard and juice just as much as Coleman, but nobody got to Coleman's level.
I remember JJ Marsh telling me that when he first started weight training he couldn't believe how quickly it changed him. He said it was like time lapse photography. He would get up in the morning and look in the mirror and seemed to grow overnight. Within six months he was already more advanced than other guys in the gym who were training and juicing for over a decade. His response was extraordinary and he did nothing special. But though he competed at a world class level he still didn't have the ultimate gift that put him at the very top. And he devoted his life to bbing and there is nothing he wouldn't have done to make it to the top.
And, yes, I can make some informed judgements about people based on their posts on this board. In your case, either you have some rare talent and are just lazy, a hard worker but no talent, or neither. If you were part of the rarified elite you wouldn't have time for this board. No one knows who you are because you are just like the rest of us. Nothing special. Just ordinary folk doing the best (except shizzo and Josh) with what they have and what they were born with. But I would love it if you could prove me wrong.
Nasser once commented that it is a uniquely American ideal that you can be anything you want if you just want it bad enough. But it was just utter nonsense. I mean there can only be one Mr. O a year, one president every four years, one gold medal... mathematically it was simply impossible for everyone "who really wants it" no matter how bad and how much they sacrifice, for everyone to be number one.
It only goes to those who were born with that "something, something".
