Building Toward Success: Knowing Your ‘Ability Mix’

Everyone has a different mix of ability, talent, opportunity, wealth, support, etc.
Most people tend to focus on what they consider to be their deficiencies – rather than on their unique combination of talent and opportunities.

For example, some individuals are highly intelligent compared to the average.  Others are better educated.  A few even have photographic memories.  Some receive sound moral support from parents, friends and teachers.  The fortunate receive financial support.  Some are tall.  Some are short.  A few are uniquely athletic.  Others are highly energetic and motivated.  A minority are handsome.  Some are exceptionally charming.  A small number are great listeners.  Some are mechanical – handy.  Others are blessed with street sense; etc. ,etc.

It is extremely important that youngsters embarking on business careers recognize  their unique combination of attributes and NOT write themselves off because they lack abilities that others have. Success can be theirs.

They should also learn how to strengthen and/or compensate for apparent weaknesses.  Many a man has risen to greatness by overcoming shortcomings.  (Winston Churchill, for example, stuttered as a youngster and was not a good student; and yet he became a great leader, orator, and author.)

A father was asked on TV to explain why his athletic sons turned out so well.  He said he taught them:

To get up early every day . . . to read a page from the Bible and/or from an inspirational book . . . to be clean, well groomed, an attentive listener, and well spoken . . . to choose their friends carefully . . . to get to work a half-hour early and to leave a half-hour late . . . to think, analyze, conclude, know what they know and don’t know . . . to always do the best they can . . . to treat people as they’d like to be treated . . . to ask, believe, and receive the Lord’s support with undoubting Faith . . . to understand that good things will eventually happen if you do these things.