Talent is an innate, extraordinary potential in one or more areas of human activity; it is present in everyone, whether children, youth or adults, from all cultural groups, across different social and economic classes, and in all areas of human endeavor; gifted people are children, youth and adults with exceptional talent, who demonstrate the ability to perform at remarkably high levels when compared with others of the same age, experience or environment. These children, youth and adults have high performance abilities in mental, creative and artistic areas, and have an extraordinary capacity for leadership. They may also excel in certain academic areas.  

Perhaps the list of questions included later, and some of the characteristics of gifted adults mentioned at the end of the article indicate some of the characteristics of gifted adults, and many other characteristics can certainly be added to them; if you find, dear reader, that some of these characteristics apply to you, this may be clear evidence that you have an above-average talent, and perhaps this talent is unusual. It is not necessary at all that all of the characteristics mentioned apply to you, because there are more obvious personality traits in some gifted adults, while there is no equivalent in other individuals; it is scientifically known that the genetic factor plays a major role in the formation of intelligence in an individual; if there is a person in your family with high talent, the probability of you being gifted increases, and as was the case in previous generations, there are many gifted people who grew up in difficult environments, and it was not possible to discover their talents, and talent does not usually appear in all generations; rather, talent may appear in one generation and not appear in another.

To clearly identify your talent, there must be diagnostic procedures, including tools, interviews, and data analysis to discover these talents.

Here are several questions that may indicate a latent talent in adults; it may emerge and appear in one of the forms of human activity if the necessary conditions for its emergence are available; in addition to several characteristics that may reveal this talent.

- Have you been feeling for some time that you want to make a change in your career or personal life but have not been able to make this change?

- Do you have multiple goals and aspirations, but you cannot decide what results you would be satisfied with as a result of achieving these goals?

- Do you want to know your skills and personal qualities and employ them? 

- Are you talented or highly sensitive and want to find a way to success and a happy, prosperous life?

- Are you gifted but don't know what to do with the diagnostic results and possible reactions in your own environment?  

- Do you want to know what childhood beliefs prevent you from benefiting from your abilities and achieving your goals and dreams and how you can get rid of these beliefs?

- Are you highly sensitive and would like help in cooperating and interacting with other people to achieve your goals and aspirations?

- Do you have a relatively low sense of burnout and would like to confront this feeling in order to fulfill yourself?

There are many talented people who have played a prominent role in shaping our lives and our contemporary world, and when we search in the biographies for information about the childhood and school stages of these talented people, we find that there is no list that can collect all the famous or prominent individuals due to the lack of agreement on specific criteria for choosing them; but one of the main criteria that can be used to obtain such a list is the level of fame and the passion and interest of the public in them, and the other criterion is the judgments of experts on the value of the individual achievement that this individual has achieved; and these criteria were chosen for a sample of prominent individuals who lived in the twentieth century, and the biographies of a large number of them were studied from public libraries in Canada and America and from the Internet and from some international magazines such as (Time & Life). By studying the biographies of these individuals, it was noted that none of them enjoyed a happy childhood, and most of them had bad experiences with their schools to the point of hating school.

Many gifted adults were deeply dissatisfied with their professional or personal situations, and never thought that they might be extraordinarily gifted. They could not think about it, because they believed that if we had extraordinary talents, why were we not at least successful in our jobs? On the other hand, some individuals decided to subject themselves to talent standards only because one of their children had been discovered to be gifted.

  One of these famous people was Tom Monaghan, the owner of Pizza King, whose father died when he was 4 years old. His mother failed to raise him and left him in a religious home for boys, and then left him in an orphanage. He called his school “prison” and his classmates “prison inmates” until he almost became a monk.

  Others had a strong desire to change their career or become independent in their profession, and thus they had to measure their professional abilities and their own talents, and sometimes the desire to psychologically examine their mental talents appeared; Ray Kroc, the owner of the famous restaurant (McDonald's), hated school, especially algebra, and left school at the request of his parents and became a beverage salesman and showed a high ability to commit to work.

 Some adults sometimes suffer from psychological or psychosomatic disorders such as depression, and psychiatrists recommend looking at these symptoms from a “talent” perspective, as not discovering their talents has led to symptoms of dissatisfaction with their professions and private lives. 

Film director Woody Allen got a bad grade in his filmmaking class, always skipped school to go to the movies, and his school principal asked his mother to take him to a psychiatrist.

Billionaire Bill Gates was impatient with others who were not as quick to think as he was, especially his teachers. He did well when he joined an elite private school and was busy with a small business when he was in high school. He left college and became busy with a computer software business. His father warned him against leaving college, telling him that success would never be his ally if he did. 

  When the great inventor Thomas Edison was a boy, his teachers accused him of being extremely stupid and unable to learn, and he was fired from several jobs. The famous chemist Louis Pasteur was classified with a mediocre degree in chemistry by the Royal College.

However, many gifted adults have finally found what they were looking for in their work and personal lives. They can now exchange ideas and experiences with their gifted peers, and they have finally found the people and environment that match their personal qualities.  

Steve Jobs, one of the most successful businessmen in the world, did not go to college. Jobs went to college for one semester but failed and dropped out, saying: “After six months, I didn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to achieve in my life, nor how college would help me achieve that goal. I was also spending everything my parents had saved their entire lives, so I decided to stop. It was scary at the time, but now I see it as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!”

Gifted adults and children are often misdiagnosed with symptoms of attention deficit disorder, autism, or Asperger's syndrome, especially since some of the symptoms can be quite similar, and some adults take medication for many years before their giftedness is diagnosed.

Thus, it is clear that diagnosing talent in adults is a very important process, and has a great impact on their lives; they have finally found themselves after hard work and searching and now have a clear explanation for their inability in the past to deal with people and daily life situations. These adults often join the diagnostic research caravan and the associated instructions, follow-up appointments, interviews, calls and questions related to new professional and personal orientations, as the steps of diagnosing talent in adults include applying psychological measures and personal interviews during which the developments of recent events and situations are identified, and then the data is analyzed and the results of the diagnosis are explained.

Below are some characteristics of gifted adults that can be revealed through diagnostic procedures:

- Perfectionism and setting high standards for self and others.

- Strong moral habits.

- High sensitivity, perception and keen insight.

- He is fascinated by unconventional ideas and is eager to read.

- Feels in harmony with others.

- Curious.

- He has an unusual sense of humor.

- Good problem solver.

- He has a fertile and broad imagination.

- System and consistency in directing purposeful questions. 

- Has unusual ideas or connects seemingly incoherent ideas.

- Stands out and finds himself in challenging situations.

- Learns new things skillfully.

- He has a good long-term memory.

- A super feeling that he has a lot of talents and abilities.

- Very sensitive and compassionate.

- A feeling of extreme anger at the moral violations and the world's silence.

- He has strong emotional feelings. 

- He has a lot of energy and vitality.

- He can't stop thinking.

- He feels driven by creativity.

- Generates and brainstorms ideas and is enthusiastic about discussing them. 

- It requires periods of contemplation.

- He has a sense of alienation and loneliness.