22 Jul ASSESSING EXCEPTIONAL TALENT – WHO ARE THE EXPERTS?
The thought has occurred to me that we trust “experts’ to judge hiring, promotions, selections for athletic teams, qualifications for music programs, and other critical life-altering decisions, but what happens when these decisions are questionable? People who are not accepted may choose to continue to pursue those goals, or they may give up. Then, we would never be aware that these people had exceptional talent.
I have been reading Elton John’s autobiography, titled “Me,” and read of an incident early in his career. He and his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin submitted some songs they had written to a studio manager named Steven Brown. Brown was not very impressed with the songs and said:
You need to stop this rubbish. You’re not very good at it. In fact …’you’re hopeless. You’re never going to make it as songwriters. You can’t do it at all.1
We all know that Elton John and Bernie Taupin are among the most successful songwriting teams. They have collaborated on 30 albums and sold millions of songs, 40 of which were top 10 hits, during the past 50 years. Both have been knighted in the U.K. In 1992, they were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition, they recently received the U.S. Library of Congress Gershwin Award. That’s not too bad for two people judged not to have songwriting talent.
Other famous examples of exceptional talent that so-called experts misjudged include Michael Jordan, Barbra Streisand, and Neil Diamond.
Have you ever heard of Clifton “Pop” Herring? Probably not. He was the basketball coach who cut Michael Jordan from his high school varsity basketball team at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina when he was a sophomore. Were there 15 boys better than Jordan at that time? Jordan is considered by many, including me, to be the best professional basketball player of all time. Herring was a popular coach, but he may have overlooked Jordan, or MJ improved greatly between his sophomore and junior years in high school.
Columbia Records dropped Neil Diamond as a songwriter. He then recorded for Bang Records and became a music superstar, writing and performing. He has sold millions of albums, 21 of which are platinum, and is also in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has performed to sold-out audiences for over five decades.
Diamond attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, New York, where he was in the school choir with Barbra Streisand. Their choir teacher, Cosimo De Pietto, never let Streisand sing solo.2 Were there many other singers in the choir with better voices than one of the most popular singers of the 20th century?
The Kansas City Star newspaper fired Walt Disney because it said he “lacked imagination and good ideas.”3 Salomon Brothers fired Michael Bloomberg, who started his own firm and became a billionaire. Oprah Winfrey was fired from a job as a reporter by a Baltimore television station because she couldn’t keep her emotions out of her stories. “After a performance at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley was told by the concert hall manager that he was better off returning to Memphis and driving trucks (his former career).”4 And there are many more examples.
Dr. Seuss’ (Theodore Geisel) first children’s book was rejected 27 times.5 Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hanson’s book “Chicken Soup for the Soul” was rejected 144 times.6 JK Rowling’s book “Harry Potter” was rejected for publication just 12 times.7
Of course, there are many examples where experts recognized exceptionally talented people and helped nurture and mentor them. Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim was befriended and taught by Oscar Hammerstein starting when he was ten years old. Pianist Vladimir Horowitz personally taught seven exceptional pianists.
Consequences
My concern is what happened to the people who possessed unique, exceptional talent and gave up because some “expert” told them they were not good enough, whether it was gymnastics, writing poetry, participating in sports, engaging in chess competitions, or becoming a ballerina. Those individuals perhaps did not have the perseverance or determination that others who ignored the experts had. Perhaps they were introverts or took the advice very seriously. The world has never experienced their special talent.
Do experts have too much influence or control over the lives of aspiring talents?
Also, what is the qualification to be an “expert?” Should there be a certification process in fields where there are none?
Maybe some of the so-called experts were not as qualified in judging talent as they professed to be. Sofia Vergara and Heidi Klum judge performers on America’s Got Talent. Are they experts?
Imagine a world without the artistic contributions of Walt Disney, whose imagination led to over 100 iconic films and cartoons such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse, and Peter Pan, and eventually to develop Disneyland and Disney World, the most popular tourist site in the United States. We can all agree that Walt Disney’s imagination exceeded almost everybody else’s.
As my father used to tell me: “Experts built the Titanic, and an amateur built Noah’s Ark.”
1 Elton John, Me, NewYork, NY, St. Martin’s Griffin, 2019, p. 60.
2 https://danielcoyle.com/2010/12/02/unknown-genius-teachers-whos-yours/
4 Ibid.
5 https://inshorts.com/en/news/dr-seuss-first-book-was-rejected-27-times-1467445365089
7 https://riseupeight.org/jk-rowling-harry-potter-books/#:~:text=She%20was%20told%20by%20publishers,%2C%20Kathleen%2C%20after%20her%20grandmother.