The Reward For Perseverance by Percy Cerutty

"No door remains forever locked against the man of indomitable will and courage. What we most lack is the power to continue: continuity and perseverance--the never quit spirit allied to intelligence is the secret key to success: not great natural endowments,powerful friends and favourable environments." By Percy Cerutty.
Is telling ourselves that someone else's athletic success is the result of their being a "natural" our attempt to ignore the probability that it was the result of hard work? The kind of hard work we may not be willing to do?