Raw talent, prized and rewarded early, can actually work against long-term development if it teaches someone to expect success without struggle — because the first real difficulty then feels like proof the talent was a mistake, rather than a normal part of getting better. This is a specific trap: being identified early as "naturally gifted" can install a fixed mindset by default, since the whole identity gets built around an innate quality rather than around a developable process.
The corrective isn't devaluing talent — it's recognizing that talent alone, unpaired with the tolerance for struggle that a growth mindset provides, frequently underperforms relative to less naturally gifted people who developed better strategies for handling the setbacks talent never prepared them for.
As a young player, Billy Beane was prized purely for his exceptional raw physical talent — scouts loved him on sight. But he floundered under real competitive pressure and never developed the way his talent suggested he should, eventually flaming out as a player entirely. Years later, as general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Beane became deeply skeptical of scouts who evaluated prospects mainly on how much they 'looked like a ballplayer,' preferring instead to value measurable dedication and demonstrated skill development over raw physical gifts — a philosophy that let a low-budget team compete successfully against teams with far more money.