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 gunpoint! Please don't expect anything I build with my hands to remain standing past sundown, or anything I attempt to repair to ever stay fixed after I leave the room. And if my cars relied solely on me to keep them going, 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 lifelong 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 that 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 and his combo play. But one night, a patron wanted them to sing a particular song. The trio didn't sing much and declined.

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 the song. The patrons are asking you to sing!”

So he did. He sang a song. A jazz piano player who had never sang the song in public did so for the very first time. And nobody had ever heard Sweet Lorraine 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 playing in a jazz trio in no-name bars, 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.

Some people ask, “What ability do I have that is useful?” But the better question is: “How will I use the ability that I have?”

By Steve Goodier