So, What Makes You So Special?

Here are some interesting facts about 26-year-old wunderkind Lionel Messi, the Argentine soccer genius who plays forward for renown powerhouse Barcelona:

• He scores almost every single game.
• More than half of his goals come in the final 15 minutes of a half — which means that his goals “count” even more because the opposing team has less time to respond with a goal of their own.
• In 2012, he scored five goals in a single game, during tournament play against Bayer Leverkusen.
• In January of this year, he scored twice in 30 minutes in his first game back after sitting on the bench for two months with a hamstring injury.
• Barcelona stands to win its fourth title in nine years, the most since Liverpool accomplished the feat between 1977 and 1984.

Messi is accomplishing all of this at the world’s highest level of competitive soccer, UEFA Champions League, host to most of the world’s best players in a truly global sport.

Here’s what violinist Itzhak Perlman said about musical talent:

Well first of all, there is an innate musicality that you hear immediately, you know, and it doesn't matter the level of playing, but you can already hear that something there, that they are being affected by the music. You know, sometimes, you know, when we see tapes of people who want to come into our program, we see even the look on the face when they hear a particular harmony. That already tells you that somebody has got this musical feel.

Here’s what Perlman added:

And then of course there is the challenge of the development. You know, if you hear somebody who's 12 who's amazing, you say to yourself, you know, I hope that they've survived their gift and that they continue to be amazing when they're 18 and 19 years old. You know, that's always a problem, how you develop through these years.

If the rich are like us, only richer, then the talented are something completely different altogether.