Thursday 13 September 2012

“Can You Acquire Aptitude?” - Professor M.S.Rao


“The winner's edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner's edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success.” - Denis Waitley


I conducted a soft skills training program for freshers recently. After completion of the session a student came along with me and asked, “Sir! Can you acquire aptitude?”  I said, “Partly ‘yes’ and party ‘no’”.  There are different schools of thought about this.  Aptitude is something people acquire through heredity. However, people can acquire if they are very serious about it.  

People often confuse between attitude and aptitude.  Attitude is about how you behave, and act to the situation. It is a psychological response to a situation, and how you view the things around you. In contrast, aptitude is about your mental abilities and flair for doing certain tasks. Attitude determines your altitude and you can cultivate attitude while aptitude helps you execute certain tasks effectively as you enjoy doing them.

Aptitude is about mental faculties and can be associated with talents.  Talents are inborn while skills can be cultivated over a period of time. Those who want to join in Indian Air Force, they must qualify in Pilot Aptitude Battery Test (PABT). If a candidate is rejected s/he will not get another opportunity to take the test again as the recruiters believe that this aptitude cannot be cultivated.  Similarly, most of the companies conduct aptitude tests to find out the aptitude levels of the job aspirants. Here if the candidates don’t possess requisite aptitude levels they can practice and improve their aptitude levels.  Hence, there are different schools of thoughts where some believe that people have it from heredity while some believe that people can acquire through practice.

Remember that a right combination of attitude and aptitude will take you to success. You can associate EQ with attitude and IQ with aptitude. Hence, you must blend them proportionately to achieve your success.

Good Luck!



Born for the Students



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