Redtree Times

During our stay in Asheville our hotel was located directly next to the Thomas Wolfe house and memorial.  Our room looked directly down on the roof and you had the sense of hovering over it like a ghost or angel flowing over the landscape.  I wished I had heeded the advice of my high school creative writing teacher who had pointedly suggested that I needed to read Wolfe, specifically Look Homeward Angel. Of course, I had other concerns, other fish to fry, and the book sat on my shelves for over thirty years. So I stood at my hotel window, perched above his home, wishing I knew a little more about him and his life.

So I did a search and the first quote I came across struck me immediately because it spoke of exactly how I feel about effort and talent.  Talent is only valuable when used to its fullest. His quote:

If a man has a talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever know

                  – Thomas Wolfe, The Web and the Rock                                                                                           

There is a book out that I referenced in my gallery talk, titled Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.  He states that a common trait among highly successful people is the 10000 hour principle.  To reach the farthest reach of their talents, each put in 10000 hours at their skill, making the absolute most of their abilities.  He uses examples such as the Beatles, Bill Gates, and others.  There may be flaws in the premise and in the book itself but I think the principle is a good example of Wolfe’s quote.

Interesting…