If you prefer stories about sports people, the rags-to-riches story of Jamie Vardy is a personal favourite[0]
Here is someone who never gave up despite apparently lacking the "talent" when young and yet went on to win the Premier League, be called up to play for his national team and beat the record of a world-class player (RvN) for scoring consecutive games in a row.
Meanwhile the sad story of Ravel Morrison[1] is one of how talent alone isn't enough. A football prodigy who was allegedly more gifted than his peer Paul Pogba (4th most expensive player transfer in football history). When you watch him, it is self-evident that he has some gifts but he has bounced from team to team and his career has not really reflected his natural abilities.
EDIT: Alternatively, another story, an anecdote from UK political aide Alastair Campbell in his book "Winners and How They Succeed"[2] - he talks about how on a visit to the Manchester United training grounds a coach pointed to the two young football players Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo (neither of whom were even 18 yet) and spotted that only one of the two would go on to reach the very top[3], citing a difference in work ethic:
>He said that Ronaldo never ever stopped believing he could improve, whereas Rooney 'thinks he'd made it.'
I’m on my phone while riding the public bus so can’t really easily look for a reference, but I remember the same Ronaldo saying that there was an even more talented footballer than him while he was an youngster at Sporting Lisbon but that that player didn’t play anywhere higher than the Portuguese Second League because he was lacking in work ethic. I very rarely heard Ronaldo say about someone else that he was better than him.
I recall some clip from the Ronaldo movie where he takes the camera crew to his bedroom and points at his bed and says something along the lines of "this is my bed, it is very important - I spend almost 12 hours a day here:
I sleep for 7 hours, I get up in the morning, I train, I then sleep another 5 hours to recover, then get up and train some more"
The guy has virtually no life beyond training - and he optimises his schedule to squeeze even more training time out of every day.
Say what you like, but I find it to be a little bit inspiring to see someone at the top deciding to dedicate themselves to seeing just how much further they can push themselves just for the sake of being even better...
"Aurélio Pereira, the Sporting scout who discovered Quaresma, Ronaldo and Moutinho, once said of Paim: “Do you think Cristiano is good? Wait to see Fábio Paim.”"
Here is someone who never gave up despite apparently lacking the "talent" when young and yet went on to win the Premier League, be called up to play for his national team and beat the record of a world-class player (RvN) for scoring consecutive games in a row.
Meanwhile the sad story of Ravel Morrison[1] is one of how talent alone isn't enough. A football prodigy who was allegedly more gifted than his peer Paul Pogba (4th most expensive player transfer in football history). When you watch him, it is self-evident that he has some gifts but he has bounced from team to team and his career has not really reflected his natural abilities.
EDIT: Alternatively, another story, an anecdote from UK political aide Alastair Campbell in his book "Winners and How They Succeed"[2] - he talks about how on a visit to the Manchester United training grounds a coach pointed to the two young football players Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo (neither of whom were even 18 yet) and spotted that only one of the two would go on to reach the very top[3], citing a difference in work ethic:
>He said that Ronaldo never ever stopped believing he could improve, whereas Rooney 'thinks he'd made it.'
[0]https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/oct/10/jamie-vardy...
[1]https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/09/25/the-complete-story-...
[2]https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winners-They-Succeed-Alastair-Campb...
[3]https://www.balls.ie/football/difference-between-rooney-and-...