Of Rats and Men: Where Does Great Talent Come From?
The best Super Bowl commercial for me was the National Football League’s “Super Ad: Who Wants it More?” spot titled Mr. Oboe. The advert features a story about NFL offensive lineman Ephraim Salaam convincing a young, oboe-playing grocery bagger named Chester Pitts to give football a try. Pitts ends up joining the San Diego State football team, getting selected in the second round of the NFL draft, and playing right alongside Salaam for the Houston Texans.
What an inspiring story! It reminds me of a line from Disney’s (DIS) Pixar-produced Ratatouille. After being pleasantly surprised by the cooking of an especially talented rat who dreams of being a chef, the curmudgeonly food critic Anton Ego states, “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” In Chester Pitts’ case, we see that “not everyone can become a great football player, but a great football player can come from anywhere.” Pitts was discovered while bagging groceries!
Where does great talent come from? That great talent can come from random, unexpected places makes this world and life interesting.
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