The saying is more about how a hard worker just needs to put in merely 1% of extra effort to match the talented person. And going away from the saying into fact, "talent" is mostly just nurture. If someone grew up to have their foundations set well for something, then they will be "talented" in what fits their foundations. If someone enjoys something, then they will be talented out of sheer interest in the subject.
But if you want to interpret it as you did, then sure, if talentless means "inanimate object", then they can indeed not catch up to 100%. On the other hand, so long as you achieve that 1% of talent (usually that would be "animate object with opposable thumbs and sentience") then you can match anyone with some hard work.