Sitting On Your Talent
If you are like me, there are some things you may feel
you do pretty well, and others that you would not admit to having
done even at gun-point! Please don't expect anything I build to
remain standing past sun-down, or anything I attempt to repair to
ever work like its former self again. And if my cars relied
solely on me to fix them when they broke down, I would walk most
everywhere I go.
On the other hand, I do play guitar adequately and I can
make a memorable enchilada dish. I also enjoy working with people
and I seem to have made it a life-long project to learn how to
become a better listener.
I never thought of myself as one who has any great
talent, but like each of us, I have certain skills and abilities.
Let me tell you a story, however, I once heard speaker Les Brown
relate. It's a story about a man who had REAL talent.
This particular man played piano in a bar. He was a good
piano player. People came out just to hear him play. But one
night, a patron told him he didn't want to hear him just play
anymore. He wanted him to sing a song. The man said, "I
don't sing."
But the customer was persistent. He told the bartender,
"I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to
sing!"
The bartender shouted across the room, "Hey buddy! If you
want to get paid, sing a song. The patrons are asking you
to sing!"
So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never
sung in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had
ever heard the song *Mona, Mona Lisa* sung the way it was sung
that night by Nat King Cole!
He had talent he was sitting on! He may have lived the
rest of his life as a no-name piano player in a no-name bar, but
because he HAD to sing, he went on to become one of the
best-known entertainers in America.
You, too, have skills and abilities. You may not feel as
if your "talent" is particularly great, but it may be
better than
you think! And with persistence, most skills can be improved.
Besides, you may as well have no ability at all if you sit on
whatever talent you possess! The better question is not
"What
ability do I have that is useful?" It is rather "How
will I use
whatever ability I have?"
Steve Goodier, publisher of Your Life Support System