I mostly agree with this.
This is why it's poisonous to tell a child that he or she is so smart or talented when he or she does well, which is what parents are taught to do in order to build up a child's "self esteem." Parents should tell their children when they do well that they are proud of how much hard work and effort they put into accomplishing what they have.
Anyway, honing a talent is like working a muscle. At first you're going to do pretty badly, but as you learn from your past mistakes and success and develop an intuition for your craft, you'll gradually improve. But the important thing to remember is this: no matter how foolish or crestfallen you feel when your efforts seem to be in vain, you must not just stop developing your skill.
Of course, the flip side to this is that practicing is not enough: you have to practice the right way to do things. A piano pedant (in the neutral archaic sense of the word) once said, "Practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent."
But if you never repeatedly work on a skill, you will never develop one.
I'm being a hypocrite here, as I have trouble with following this advice. It's still true.
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