Re:Natalie Portman - Scientist
by jhamburger on Wednesday March 02, 2011 @10:28AM
(#2279833)
There's a guy who went to my college, Jared Jordan- Fairly nondescript athlete, 6'2 slow white guy. Basketball is basically his life, worked his ass off more than anyone and studied the game to the point where he knows it more than the coaches do. He was drafted in the 2nd round of the NBA draft a few years ago, never made any teams' roster. All the scouts said the same thing- absolutely no upside. Now he's playing in Europe. That is about the ceiling of what you can do without being 'gifted'.
Well if he's 5'9 he's not gonna make even the top 1000.
I am going to guess you have not heard of dunk contest winning NBA players Spud Webb (5'7) or Nate Robinson (5 '9) then.
If you want to be the best in the world, it's true that factors outside of your control come into play. If you can "settle" for being in the top 10, top 100, or top 1000, instead of #1, you probably don't need much besides a lot of well-directed effort.
In my experience.