To “make it” in anything passion is the number 1 ingredient. They say to master or be a professional in any skill requires 10,000 hours of practice. Sure if you have natural talent it helps, but it takes passion in order to practice and work hard. What is exactly is talent anyway, the brain is pretty good at picking up new skills when practiced. Basically talent is just saying that a person is predisposed to be good at certain types of activities. A person who plays piano can have talent, but what is exactly is that talent? It is the ability to make music on a piano, the person is able good at multitasking, has good cordination, can hear the sounds that make up music. This person could have done a number of different things that involved those same functions. Many people who are “professionals” in a field admit that they have no natural talent that they just work hard. It is always a blend of things. Sports usually require athleticism and ability in that sport. Can a person really have natural talent to put a ball through a hoop? No they have good depth perception and able to shoot the ball the exact same way consistently. There are people with very little athleticism that can put the ball through the hoop as well as any professional basketball player yet don’t have the other same attributes that would make them a “talented” basketball player. There are some really talented people who blow it. All in all you are doing it right, you have a mentor if you work hard and put in the hours talent is a non factor.