Can Hard-Work beats Talent?

Even if you have talent, you still have to work hard. Piano prodigies don't just sit on their asses all day and watch Looney Tunes. Yeah, things come easier to them, and they don't have to work as hard, but they still have to work. Otherwise, they lag behind the people who do work hard, whether they're "talented" or not.

But if you work hard enough, doesn't that mean that you have talent? Let's say a guy plays Pac-Man for the first time and gets a truly fantastic score. What if I work hard to get really good at the game, and a year later, I get a score that surpasses the other guy's? If people said he had talent when he got the high school, shouldn't they also say that I have talent, because I was able to beat the score?

It doesn't matter if it takes a person ten years to be better than someone else; results are all that matter, and it's certainly possible for someone to work their ass off and beat someone with natural talent. Unless, of course, the naturally talented person works their ass off, too, in which case you can't be angry at them, because they still worked as hard as you.

Same here~

It is more likely that people didn't want to be his friend because he knew/thought he was talented. And people who think they are special tend to be annoying.

Having a natural ability over people can make a person lazy and reliant on that ability. But talent comes in different forms as well, and it depends on what you have a talent for. For things like athletic ability, a person might not have to really work very much at all if they have natural talent. But for things like musical talent, as Shaggy said, it isn't something you can just do, but the capability to learn faster and preform better than other people, but you still have to work at it.
I'm sure for some people, regardless of how hard they work, there is no way for then to match up to another person's natural talent. Midgets can't be NBA stars.
But in many cases, I think that a lot of effort can beat talent, if the talented person does not also work hard.
Just seems to make sense to me.

Also, Isn't this one of the central themes in History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi? That he was basically completely talentless in the martial arts, but through intensive training was able to defeat people who should have been much better than him?
Not real life, and maybe not even realistic, just something else I thought of.

I think Hard-work can beat talent because as you go through rigorous training or work you'll absorb the skills little by little. Thus forming it into one big pile of skills.
I think this is only applicable if the one with talent does not work hard or is lazy.

....rock lee(hard work) vs neji(talent)?......

raw hard work can outweigh raw talent since hard work is worth more. the spartans ran on pure hardwork, and look at how they overcame their enemies in 300. case closed. plus they have their own sign now because of their hard work and efforts. see?

Of course, no one in this world is UNbeatable. First of all, even if raw talent is indeed something that a person was born with, it still needs some proper maintenance and nourishment. Second, "beat" wherein to be exact? There's a lot of outside factors aside from sheer talent and hardwork that can completely affect the outcome of any given competition or contest, whatsoever. Go figure, I don't think it's even necessary to give such examples, as a few has already been mentioned by some. Lastly, talent alone amounts to nothing in the real world. (surely, we're not talking about anime here, remember?) - We live in a world where MONEY wins over talent and hardwork combined. (I'm simply looking at a much bigger picture)

I agree with this one.

That's not really a good example. Spartan society was a combination of hard work and talent, since they bred for physical capability and picked out and discarded the weak, and also went through heavy training for battle. And the Persian army doesn't represent talent. And that particular story is heavily dramatized.

So an all around poor example.

A person that works hard could beat a person that has talent all they need is the patients and the determination to surpass that person without these two thing the person cannot pass the person who has the talent on whatever it is they are talented on since one you will just give up if you cannot beat the person if you dont have the patients and two if you are not determine you wont even bother to try and surpass the person

There's no such thing as pure talent. Raw diamonds are ugly as hell. Every talent must be honed, no one is born knowing how to draw. It's easier for some, that's talent, but they still need to work very hard to be good.

This is true in most cases, because a talent isn't typically something you just wake up and can do; if you have a talent for a musical instrument or a certain science, if you never picked up that instrument or studied that subject, you wouldn't know you were talented. Same for physical ability, if you had it, but never directed it at any particular sport, it would pretty much be meaningless.
However, for some things, you might naturally be better at other people the first time you do it. If you are talented as a fighter, and go the first 20 years of your life without fighting, it wouldn't matter. But if you got into a fight with someone at 20 and beat them because of that talent, it would.
You are right, though, most natural talent isn't so much the ability to do something as it is the ability to learn to do something, or to get better at something much more quickly and to a level far surpassing the capabilities of normal people with less work.

this is my definition of talent:
It is nothing but an occurence where the person's mindset just so happens to be the right mindset that is required to do that particular thing. (Mindset is more accurately interpretted as the way you do things, what you know and everything in that sense be it concious or subconcious).

There is no such things as a direct and defnite line where talent > hard work or vice versa. Hard work has a volume of its own, and so does talent. But with that said, most people who are talented tend to rely too much on their talent and hard workers can catch up.

Talent is nothing but an advantageous starting point, and if you do not apply hard work, you will fall behind.

An analogy would be an example of a race. Imagine the person with no talent having to run 100 meters, while you, who has talent, starts 30 meters ahead (meaning you need to only run 70 meters). If you took your starting point for granted, the hard worker will win the race (think tortoise and hare story). However, if you ran as fast as you could (and assume you run at the same speed as the hard worker), you will win the race definitely.

In the end, talent alone is nothing, hardwork alone can beat talent, but talent AND hardwork is something that is unbeatable.

But, sometimes talent alone can beat hard-work.

I have a cousin and we're in same class. She always study and I almost never study but I still better than her.

At least you still study are you?

and is you far better from her or just a bit better from her?
I believe your case is, you are a fast-learning person, so you can understand in just one run.
Your cousin is maybe not a fast-learning person
it's like this example: you try and succeed in one run, she succeed in her third or fourth run.

I only believe talent can beat hard-work if you said you never study and still far better than your cousin, but we all know that's impossible.
Let me say this, maybe sometimes your cousin will be better than you, to make yourself always better than her you still need to do the work.

edit:
No offense, but I think you're a lazy-type person who trying to convince yourself that you'll be okay just with your talent, I'm not tell you are an wrong or an over-confident person or something. It just seems you not like to do work or put effort on something, myself is like that and I'm failing now. Good thing for you is you have talent that I don't have to help you stay in who you are now. Believe me, either you hate to do some work or effort, they are necessary.

His cousin could just be dumb. You can't call yourself all too smart if your only unit for comparison is the special ed class.
But I actually mostly agree with this is she is average. Most people don't understand something the first time they hear it. People who do well without studying do so because they can learn and remember things the first time they hear them. You can't know something you've never seen before.

You don't have to work hard to get far in life, though. Money and family connections can get you anywhere.