I remember embarking on my design career sixteen years ago banking on raw talent to make me irresistible to potential employers. Ever since elementary school my ability to draw, create, etc. had been noted by fellow students, teachers and parents. And now, with my well-crafted portfolio in hand, I was set to change the world. After all, I was talented. Everyone (including my grandmother) told me so.
Since then I've learned (sometimes the hard way) that my level of "raw" talent would never have gotten me very far. That romanticized idealism has been replaced with a pragmatic realism: we work in the real world with people, problems, and limits.
Talent only gets you so far. But how far? What percentage of success as a designer comes from talent and how much do you attribute to other factors: business sense, people skills, networking, marketing, etc? Specifically, how heavily do you rely on talent for your success?
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