Thought for the Day - Maybe We Are Overlooking Our Biggest Strength

 I was recently talking to a friend of mine - smart, intelligent, good at his work but stuck in his career with no projects and no money. We talked about how so many others are making money - people with far less intelligence and smartness and understanding.

Mallaiah's old cycle - he was a handyman 

Then it struck me. Maybe we do not know what is our strength. Maybe our ego makes us feel that we need to do something 'more' than what comes easy to us.

Are we trying to create a masterpiece without grounding our feet on the ground? And missing the whole point?

Consider for a moment that perhaps there is a skill that we have that we do not take seriously. It comes easy to us. We take it for granted. We indulge in it and throw it away.

And we chase something that catches our fancy. Something we may not really be good at but which we feel defines us (or our idea of us). So we try to make that very different novel, movie, work of art - something out of our zone - and ignore what we can easily to.

For eg - when i first started to write I was obsessed with the idea of being different, smart etc. So I wrote some stuff which never took off - too pretentious possibly. Until someone said - why don't you write a cricket story and I thought - hey, its easy. Lets me do it for a lark. Guess what, that got published, got made into a movie, and perhaps is my best work yet.

I overlooked my biggest strength, what I knew well, what was unique to me and chased something else trying to be 'different'.

I spoke to a few writers, musicians and read about some others. All of them said that what they considered their greatest work was a flop while what they did just for fun (or with ease) was a hit.

So to me it looks like my friend could do well to look at his entire skill set, his story and figure what his unique story is that he can tell, what his unique skill is that he can use to make money. It could be real estate, running a hotel, selling designs, teaching - something that comes easy to him that he is rejecting, overlooking. Perhaps that's where his fortune lies.

Perhaps that's what the other 'less intelligent' people did to be more successful.

Perhaps we could look at what gift we are overlooking what we are rejecting as 'not me' and accept it. Things might just change in our lives.