As a college student Arthur Miller wrote a play, his first, and entered it into a contest. It won first prize. Same thing with his second play. Neither of them was ‘Death Of A Salesman’ (yet), but his extraordinary aptitude for theatrical writing was evident and recognized.

The third play Aaron Sorkin wrote was produced on Broadway. It was ‘A Few Good Men’. When he began to write plays, from the first words it was clear he was a special talent, that he had game.

Also, Sorkin spent his childhood and adolescence going to the theater frequently, which helped enhance an innate sense of what was dramatic, of what excited him, and of what worked on the stage.

That’s the talent part. They were born with it, and by the time they started to write it was ready to bloom. In Sorkin’s case it was nature and nurture.

But what’s even more impressive is that, far from coasting on his gift, Sorkin has continued to be remarkably productive, creating movies and plays in his personal style and succeeding at a level few writers ever attain. In addition to ‘A Few Good Men’, consider ‘The American President’, ‘The West Wing’, ‘The Social Network’, the new version of ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, currently on Broadway… Plus a lot of other notable work.

This is even more true of Arthur Miller. He remained a serious and committed writer for his entire life and went on to author masterpieces like ‘Death Of A Salesman’ and ‘The Crucible’, not to mention ‘All My Sons’ and ‘A View From The Bridge’, which are still, more than 60 years after their creation, performed constantly all over the world.

Yes, the talent level of some people is intimidating; this is true in any field. I certainly didn’t begin with anything like what these writers had! You probably didn’t either.

But, rather than being intimidated by what some start with, I prefer to be inspired by what the really good ones do with what they have. If they’d stopped after their first few precocious efforts, we wouldn’t know their names. We all know gifted people in all walks of life who didn’t have the drive to develop their innate talent. At times, I‘ve been one of those people!

We’re all in the same boat. Even Arthur Miller and Aaron Sorkin. We start with whatever we start with. There’s nothing that can be done about that. But what I do with it… that’s the part I have some control over. How committed am I to getting better, to going deeper? That’s where I have a say.

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