On the other hand, I think that most people have double-standards – that is, the standard to judge our own talent, and the standard to judge other people’s talents. So sometimes, when people don’t recognise our talents, we tend to say things to knock their heads like “don’t judge a book by its cover“. But then when it’s time for us to recognise other people’s talents, we unconsciously judge them by their covers, thinking: nah… this old lady sure is not going anywhere with this look.

Ahem, ironic isn’t it? Haha.

But, it’s inevitable for human to judge by covers because that’s part of our natural instincts.

People who don’t judge others by appearance are those who understand that visual representation of a person might be ambiguous to own interpretation, and they will know how to adjust their mindset consciously to not having biassed thinking.

So technically, everybody judges books by covers, at least at first.

Hands up?

Seriously, can you imagine a 35-year-old ah-beng with colourful hair, selling mobile phones in a small tiny little counter in a small mall in your home town, telling you he can sing opera and hoping to become a pro opera singer??

No need to think twice – you’ve already got an answer in your mind before you finished the last word of the question.

But then, you’ll realised there’s a possibility that talented people were born in the wrong place and at the wrong time, and they were not given an opportunity, or maybe they were not even prepared for the opportunities in the past and they missed them.

So anyway, Susan and Paul are totally talented and inspiring. Their stories are good for times in our life when we were rejected, squeezed and humiliated for our dreams that seem unrealistic to others.

But I wonder…

How about those people really without talents but with dreams?

Ahem.

There’s a difference between 天才 and 地才.