Last weekend, I was watching the NFL playoffs, when I saw a commercial featuring Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. My ears perked up when he said something about talent.
People tell me, “Russell, you’ve achieved your dreams because you have talent.” Oh yeah, talent? What’s talent? Talent’s just practice and practice. Attempt after attempt after attempt. All day, every day. That’s it. Look, everything you’re going to be, you already are. If you really want to achieve your dreams, protect what’s inside you.
This is interesting, because at the beginning of the commercial, you think he’s going to argue that talent isn’t innate (which is why my ears perked up when hearing this commercial). But the phrase, “everything you’re going to be, you already are,” tells a different story about talent.
At The Center for Sales Strategy, we believe that talents are innate, and that everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses. In fact, we help people hire the right talent as well as develop their talents as sales managers. And I think Russell Wilson (or whoever wrote the commercial!) would agree.
Not everyone can be a superstar quarterback. But we each have our own strengths, skills, and traits that, with plenty of practice, and focusing on increasing our strengths (instead of the time-honored tradition of attempting to fix our weaknesses) we all can shine.
I like the way that sounds, don’t you?