Ability and opportunity are often orthogonal

What Seth says about ideas,

The quality of ideas is not a factor in whether or not you will be in a position to have a chance to sell those ideas.
Seth Godin

is true for other things as well. If you have the ability to do something well (or not), that is orthogonal to whether you are in a position to do so.

If you want to get better at your craft, it takes work.

If you want to have better opportunities to use your craft, that takes work as well…just a different kind of work.