Coaches don’t fight over the most gifted kid. They fight over the one who actually listens.

Talent arrives on its own and hits a ceiling surprisingly early. Being easy to teach keeps compounding, because every correction actually changes something instead of bouncing off. Anyone who coaches for a living knows this, which is why they pick differently than the crowd does. A gifted player who cannot take feedback is a short project.

When someone tells you what to fix this week, try doing exactly that before you explain your reasoning. Change the thing, see what happens, then talk. Coachability is a skill you can build, and it outlasts whatever you happened to be born good at.