The flip side is, when you're naturally good at something, it becomes fun to do. So you do it a lot.
I tried for 2 years to get good at guitar. Never got good. But didn't practice very often either.
Then one I sat down at a drum set and was immediately better than the drummer in my band. I had a knack. It was so fun to play those beats that I practiced almost every day for many years, and still do. And have gotten pretty darn good.
Considering myself an above average guitar player - I'm not sure whether guitarist vs drummer abilities carry over to hacker vs business skills. Your problem with playing the guitar was most probably related to left-right-coordination or some physical feature (like joint flexibility), right? Or maybe you did not "hear" the notes?
I think that both good/x10 business people and hackers need similar personality traits (or let's call them habits) - focus, persistence, and willingness to learn. Concrete skills like talking to or with people you have never seen before, or learning a framework in the matter of days, can likely be acquired when trying long and hard enough. E.g. I learned to learn new songs in the matter of half an hour or less; I'd never imagined I was capable of that! But it's a skill just like any other.
But we really have to _want_ to get good at something in order to do it. Staying with the guitar example - I can do finger exercises for months and months, but if I don't have a lick I want to eventually be able to play, I will not follow through, whatever focus and persistence I put in during exercise.
That's why I prefer to sketch out interfaces before implementing them - hacking and Photoshopping is just a necessity in order to get the product I dreamt up. I do enjoy programming, and I do it focussed and persistent, but I have to really want the outcome (in that case a cool interface and UX).
Based on my reading & observations, skill at the upper end of a creative/intellectual domain seems to range from about 5-20% talent and 80-95% practice-related factors. A lot of people don't realize how important different types of practice are. The Talent Code cites a study where researchers found that students who believed they would practice an instrument for all their lives learned nearly 4 times as quickly as students who thought they'd play the instrument for a few years-with the same amount of practice!
The one consistent element of natural talent that comes up in intellectual/creative pursuits is working memory. The average person can hold roughly 7 "units" of information in their brain[0], which is why phone numbers are 7 digits long. When sightreading, pianists with a high working memory effectively have an advantage of a few extra years of practice[1]. I would imagine that a high working memory is also helpful in programming, as it determines how large a program you can easily hold in your head.
I tried for 2 years to get good at guitar. Never got good. But didn't practice very often either.
Then one I sat down at a drum set and was immediately better than the drummer in my band. I had a knack. It was so fun to play those beats that I practiced almost every day for many years, and still do. And have gotten pretty darn good.
Natural ability turns into learned skills.