I’m Not Gifted

I’m not a gifted person as I learn things by hustling. I'm also not a talented person. The impetus of this piece I got from a recent chess win against my sister. I lost 12 games on the trot. And today, I've finally won. More than being happy, I am relieved about the fact that the game once again proved that I’m a hustler; a learner. I learn from my mistakes.

In school, I never have any favorite teacher. In college, I never have any favorite professor. I always try to learn things on my own. And I learn things from my failures. However, this doesn’t mean I love failures. I hate failures.

After joining the advertising, during the initial phase of my career, all my write-ups used to get rejected. I’ve seen many gifted writers whose copy used to get approved on the first attempt. But I’m not one of those writers. I try to trod on the hard part, which is exploring things on my own. I don’t feel easy when other people try to dictate me. However, this doesn’t mean I don’t need help from other people.

I’m more interested in learning by myself. I believe my adventurous nature is the reason behind this. I read copywriting books after joining the advertising industry. I’ve worked for 4 years in advertising then I bought my first copywriting book. I learned copywriting by doing. I tried the trial-and-error method and most of the time I failed, miserably.

I wrote my first script without reading any scriptwriting book. After writing the first script, I bought my first book. This has helped me a lot to bisect what is scriptwriting. The funniest part is- to understand the material of the book, I had to give a double-reading. To be honest, after the first read, I didn’t understand. As I told you earlier, I’m not gifted. I’m a hustler.

This has helped me to keep a low-profile. Having a low-profile means, you get more time to think. I love solitude. For instance, I was spending ‘me-time’ for quite some time. I saw a video on filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky in which he said the importance of solitude. I watched the video on YouTube several times but it never registered. However, my job-lessness has forced me to spend a lot of ‘me-time’, which has helped me to understand what solitude means.

The things I’ll do in the future are all going to be the fruits of hustling. I prefer learning by doing. And when I say doing, I mean doing one job multiple times. My problem is that I don’t understand things for the first time. I’m not gifted people like Hemmingway or Maradona. So, I like to toil every day.

I’ve become quite used to this type of living. So when I see something is happening around me without much toiling, I feel a degree of desperation.  I don’t feel comfortable if something is not a result of hardship. And when I say hardship, I mean my hardship, not the others. Others might be gifted and talented people. But to be honest I don’t give a damn to such talents because I love hustling.