Part of the introduction to my upcoming book

The Parable of the Talents

Talent is today defined as natural ability or aptitude. People throw the word around: “He has talent,” “I have no talent.” The origin of the word is important. In Biblical times, a talent was a weight or monetary unit—money, in other words. And what is money? Money is a medium of exchange.

Talent apparently came to mean ability or aptitude because of the Parable of the Talents, a story attributed to Jesus in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30.) It’s a fascinating story. A man left three servants with differing amounts of money (talents) when he went on a trip. One buried it, but two invested it and had more talents. He rewarded the two who doubled their talents and threw the third into the street.

So be warned: if talent is a word standing for natural ability, it is still up to you to develop that ability you have.