On 12 October at Mutiplier Event in Košice, Slovakia, we asked our audience to fill in a questionnaire about their opinions on the concept of talent. We received 68 questionnaires in return. In this blog entry, you´ll find the results.
Question no. 1: Do you consider yourself to be talented? If yes, in which area?
Results: Only 8 people stated they did not consider themselves to be talented (less than 12 %). 60 people claimed they were talented (over 88 %).
In the open part of the question, some respondents did not specify the area they are talented in, while the other did. The most frequent answers are as follows:
- Languages (10 votes),
- Communication (8 votes),
- Leadership and organisation (7 votes),
- Art (7 votes),
- Problem solving (6 votes),
- Perseverance (4 votes)
- Design (3 votes),
- Creativity (3 votes),
- Logical thinking (3 votes).
Question no. 2: Write the first three words you associate with the word “talent“.
This was an open question, respondents did not have options to choose from. The most frequent words were:
- Genius 16x,
- Success 15x,
- Ability 15x,
- (Hard) work 12x,
- Excellence 10x
- Uniqueness 7x,
- Art 7x,
- Potential 4x,
- Difference 4x.
Question no. 3: In your opinion, who is the proof that talent can be transformed into success? You can state the reason, too.
This was an open question, respondents did not have options to choose from. The only two names that received more than three votes were Peter Sagan (4 votes), a very popular Slovak cyclist and a world champion; and Steve Jobs (4 votes), the co-founder of Apple. Most respondents did not write a specific name, instead they mentioned certain groups of people, such as artists, sportspeople, musicians, etc. Some respondents claim successful people for them are people who like what they do, people who (positively) influence other people´s lives, or “nameless“ people who make our lives better. Only few people wrote the names of their relatives or friends; most stayed focused on well-known people.
Statements
In cooperation with psychologists dealing with the concept of talent, we created these six statements:
- Everyone is talented.
- Talent is above all innate.
- Talent without strong will leads nowhere.
- It is easier to find a good job for talented people.
- Family background has a cruciall influence on talent development.
- Talent without adequate financial support has no prospect.
Respondents were asked to state how much they dis/agree with them, using a scale from 1 to 5 points, 1 being I strongly disagree, 2 I don´t agree, 3 I don´t know, 4 I agree and 5 I strongly agree.
According to the results, our respondents agreed most with statement no. 3: “Talent without strong will leads nowhere,“ having scored over 4.4 points. On the other hand, they disagreed most with statement no. 6: “Talent without adequate financial support has no prospect,“ having barely reached 3 points.
Overall, we had the sample of 68 respondents who had filled in the questionnaire. We would like to thank everyone for participating and making the 3rd Multiplier Event enjoyable and beneficial for everyone.
