I was a good student, but I didn’t stand out as particularly creative. I admired musicians, actors, entrepreneurs, writers, designers, and artists. I thought creativity was only for a chosen few and that talent was an innate gift.
I did well in school, but I struggled when it came to learning on my own. My attempts to master web design, dance, or game development often ended in failure. At the first sign of obstacles, I gave up. My inner voice whispered, “This will take too much time, you don’t need this,” and I would give in to these thoughts.
I worked hard to succeed in school and even earned a university scholarship. However, my university years were unconscious and, looking back, quite unproductive. I spent money carelessly and often abandoned projects halfway through. Constantly comparing myself to others, I felt they were simply luckier than me.
I wanted to become a developer, but I never fully mastered the craft. I naively believed that university would teach me everything I needed, but it didn’t. Back then, I placed all my hopes on formal education and failed to understand the importance of taking initiative in learning. In truth, I didn’t even know how to properly organize self-study.
By the time I was 24, I felt lost and left behind in life. Thoughts of not being good enough, and an uncertain future weighed heavily on me. Job hunting only made things worse—everywhere required experience and skills that I didn’t have. I felt hopelessly behind those who had been lucky with their education and career paths.
In this critical moment, fate led me to the book The Boy Who Could Fly: The Path to Freedom by Igor Akimov and Viktor Klimenko. This book transformed my understanding of talent and opened up new horizons.
How much does a person need to be happy?
Sometimes, it’s enough to change the meaning of just one word.
And that word is “talent.”
This book explores a single revolutionary idea: Talent is not a gift. It’s a state of mind. And this state can be entered, practiced, and lived.Originally written in Russian, this book has not yet been officially published in English. But I’ve translated it and embedded it into an AI portal.
You can access and interact with the book in two ways:🤖 Via Conversational AI — Use the AI companion to ask questions, explore core concepts, and deepen your understanding:
Ask things like:
“What does the book say about talent as a state of mind?”
“Summarize the steps of transformation.”