Talent: is it innate or acquired?

Most people seem to support the notion that whether one is gifted in an area or not has nothing to do with this person's education or training during childhood or even adulthood, and that, instead, what an individual is good at has been actually determined long before their birth by their genes. For several years, there has been a strong debate between this gene-favouring notion and the belief that anyone, regardless of their genes, can make a good sports person or musician provided that they have been properly trained during childhood. 

According to some geneticists, it is genes that utterly dictate the talents of each unique individual. What this means is that a child with genes associated with good performance in sports will grow into an extremely talented sports person who can by no means be surpassed by one lacking these particular genes, no matter how well or hard the latter has been training. Is this entirely true, however? Are we merely products of our genes with absolutely no control over the development of our skills?

Recent surveys have shown that genes shape our capabilities only to some extent (52% according to estimates) and that the environment in which a child grows up plays an almost equally important role. In other words, if a child that is not as musically ingenious as Mozart practises hard day and night and is passionate enough about music, it has a good chance of becoming a very gifted musician in the future. Besides, as Thomas Edison had put it, "talent is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration."

Considering all of the above, it is clear to me that both our DNA and upbringing are important factors when it comes to the determination of our talents. Having good genes or genes strongly associated with a talent can give you a kick-start and put you ahead of others, but hard work is also required in order to unlock your full potential. It is also true that sometimes a good environment combined with proper training and lots of effort is sufficient to compensate for what our genetic make-up might be lacking.