First, don't be embarrassed, second, if you're not getting well paid now, don't give up, it will arrive, sooner or later.

Thanks
 

Thanks Claudemir for your vote of confidence.

Joan

You're quite welcome.

Brazil
 

I'll have to look up your city location in Brazil. My husband recently travelled to Rio. He took a lot of photos, a beautiful country.

Joan

Joan, I agree with you that 'strengths' is so-called talent. If we don't develop our strengths and weaknesses we have not lived well enough and to our potential.

Strengths help us accomplish things intuitively and easier ( a smooth road), weaknesses help us accomplish things with courage and determination (a bumpy road). I think one cannot be without the other, yin/yang etc. Thats just my opinion. It is the journey that is important and the will power to stay focussed on our chosen road.

Alot of people have high expectations and get disappointed with their performance and jump off the road early, others have sheer determination to stay on the road, no matter what lies ahead of them.

Is this Talent?

Thanks,

This is a lovely place to visit. Rio de Janeiro is about 5 hours away from my home.

That's a very hot city.

Hi Ngaire,

I think that agrees with all of what has been posted here.
For sure, most people here has the same point of view, talented or gifted people have to work hard... need determination.. inteligence and something in their hearts.

David Leffel said three things to me that have stayed in my mind related to this topic. These are paraphrases as it has been a while:
1- "Looking at the history of art, there were so many talented people, so I knew that if they could do it, I could do it."
2- "I try to learn from each painting and to continually create a better painting than the one that I had just finished. This way I grow over the dead bodies of my past paintings.
3- "It's not that difficult, once you learn how to do it, you'll see it's not that difficult. You've just got to learn how to do it."

Finally to quote Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never give up."
Anthony

Thank you!
 

Thank you Anthony for sharing those quotes, very inspirational!

Joan