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Fact or Opinion?
“You ain’t going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” What if Elvis believed this Grand Ole Opry manager’s critique after his l954 performance? Or the Beatles listened in 1962 when Decca Recording Company responded, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.”What if Rudyard Kipling quit writing when the San Francisco Examiner told him, “I’m sorry, but you just don’t know how to use the English language.” Or as a struggling artist, Walt Disney took seriously the words of a prospective employer to “try another line of work” because he “didn’t have any creative, original ideas.”What if ten year old Albert Einstein believed his teacher’s words, “you will never amount to much.” Or opera star, Enrico Caruso, gave up singing after his first vocal teacher counseled, “your voice sounds like wind whistling through a window.”Thankfully, they didn’t believe what they were told. But many of us do. We accept someone else’s opinion as our fact. We allow others to determine what we believe about ourselves, what we aspire to achieve, what we dream and what we become. Others people’s limiting beliefs about us become our own as we give them power over our life.But, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen didn’t. Their “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, now with 65 titles, has sold more than 80 million copies in 27 languages. Not bad for an anthology rejected by 33 major publishing houses in the first month, receiving more than 140 total rejections before their agent gave it back to them saying “I can’t sell this book.” Only by going booth to booth and pitching their vision to editors at a booksellers’ convention did they finally find a small publisher who said yes.Their passion about their work and its message kept them going. Passion kept Disney and Einstein and Kipling going, too. That’s because passion is the most powerful self-motivator any of us can have. It’s what drives us to use our talents and abilities. It’s the one criteria I’ve found most helpful when selecting people in my twenty years of management. You can teach most skills. But you can’t teach passion.People who are winning at working believe in themselves and their dreams. They’re not likely to view setbacks as failures, roadblocks as dead-ends, or negative critique as fatal. It’s their passion that keeps them going when others give up. It’s their passion that provides strength of purpose, resilience, persistence and the confidence to keep trying. It’s their passion that helps them differentiate between opinion and fact about who they are and what they can do with their life. It’s their passion that guides them.Like Babe Ruth said, “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” When you are passionate about your work, your dreams and your life, you don’t give up.
The Relationship Between Motivation and Talent
Hydrogen and oxygen are distinctly different elements, but sometimes they combine to form water. Something similar is true for motivation and talent.Motivation is the desire to do something. Talent is what you do well naturally. They can exist independently, but when they combine, they create something special. They create motivated talents.People often are naturally good at something (talented), but it just doesn’t turn them on. For example, Heather is good with numbers, but she doesn’t go out of her way to find tasks calling for that talent. Most people have such talents. But then there are those talents that we really enjoy using. These are the motivated talents, and this is where the magic is.We use motivated talents every chance we get. Most of the time we don’t even think about it. For example, Larry has a motivated talent for conversation, and he naturally engages both friends and strangers in dialog. He doesn’t consciously determine to do so; it just happens. It’s natural and unforced. He enjoys it, and he’s good at it. That’s the hallmark of a motivated talent.Motivated talents tend to be irrepressible. They find expression. In fact, if you’ve ever tried to stifle a motivated talent (either yours or someone else’s) it probably felt like you were trying to hold two dozen ping pong balls under water at the same time. Motivated talents pop out, even if no one else is asking for them. And doesn’t that make sense? After all, it’s what we do well AND enjoy.Well then, wouldn’t the ideal job be one where you can use your motivated talents daily and get paid for it? Absolutely! But more on that later.What are your motivated talents? Shouldn’t your boss know? You can let him/her know by giving them a copy of you own career assessment.Get a job you love and never work a day in your life.
The Problem of Seeing Yourself Clearly
Karen was only half thinking of how her hair looked as she used her comb to meticulously sculpt her new haircut. Her mind was on the Manager of the Year award she was about to accept. As she re-applied her lipstick she ran through her acceptance speech in her mind. Karen stepped back from the mirror to admire her new navy blue suit. Stunning. She looked great, felt terrific, and marched out of the ladies room with an unmistakable glow. As she waited offstage she was more excited than nervous. In a few moments she would be honored in front of 2,000 employees. When she got her cue, she strode confidently across the huge stage toward the company president, trailing two feet of toilet paper from her left heel.All of us have trouble seeing ourselves accurately. We often need an objective source to give us honest feedback. Karen sure could have used it!How about you? How accurately do you see yourself in terms of the job market? Can you list your top five motivations? How about your key talents?Research shows that we only see ourselves accurately about half of the time. When it comes to what makes you tick, it takes an unbiased source that knows what to look for to give you an accurate picture of yourself. Career assessments are such a source. They can identify what motivates you, and what doesn’t. You can use that knowledge to help you understand why your present job is not satisfying, and what types of job would be.Don’t strut upon the stage of work without objective feedback about your strengths and weaknesses. Who knows, you might be the next Manager of the Year?