Research indicates that the characteristics we are born with have much more influence on our personality and development than any experiences we may have in our life. Which do you consider to be the major influence?

It is generally believed that some people are born with certain

talents

,

for instance

for

sports

or music, and others are not.

However

, it is sometimes claimed that any child can be taught to become a good

sports

person or musician. Discuss both these views and give your opinion. Whether good skills are mainly rooted in

talents

or they are the result of practice and education has always been a contentious topic. Some tend to highlight the significance of inborn

talents

, while others maintain that quality training can result in great skills in nearly anyone. It is a common belief that some children are naturally talented in certain

sports

or subjects. Most people have evidence for

this

: children who were musically or mathematically more inclined than others in school. Accounts of world-famous geniuses are witness to

this

opinion: Mozart composed his

first

piece at 4, and young Magnus Carlson beat world-class chess player Anatoly Karpov at the age of 10. How would

this

be possible without intrinsic genius? A different outlook,

however

, places a premium on potential in everyone. Every child is believed to be born with a variety of different

talents

. If realized and capitalized on, their potentials can develop from a mere talent to a fully fledged skill. Research in multiple intelligences supports

this

belief; people are not unilaterally gifted in one type of intelligence, but rather we all seem to possess

talents

in different areas:

sports

, languages, arts and so on. In my opinion, there is truth to be found in both ways of thinking. Some child prodigies

such

as Mozart and Magnus Carlson may, by nature, stand a better chance of becoming prominent in their fields;

however

, it is wrong to see success as synonymous to becoming the

first

in the world. Good talent can turn into something decent in everyone especially if discovered at a young age and invested in. To conclude, neither the role of inborn

talents

nor that of quality training and education can be ignored. While great potentials can pave the path to impressive success, potentials exist in all humans and can be actualized given enough time and effort.