Becomming Someone Special

“Do you think I’m talented enough?”

-       Annie Butterfield

Becoming Someone Special

Driving with other people in the car provides an opportunity to think and to have some wonderful conversations.  I make it my practice to spend most of my drive time without any distraction.  Yes.  It makes my family crazy to ride with me because most of the time the radio and other entertainment devices are in the off position.  When they ask why I do that to myself my reply is always the same.

“How can you tell what you think if you always have someone else in your ear giving you suggestions?”

So, three of us were driving the other day when my daughter, Annie, asked me if I thought she was talented enough.  I was taken aback because she is one of the most intelligent, talented people I know.  Still, I told her so and reminded her of another significant partner of talent.  Work!

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Utah I was cruising along very well until I ran in to one particular professor in my major field of study.  He was difficult to be sure, but I wasn’t worried.  I should have been!

I’ll never forget the first class I had with him.  The class started in a large room filled with more than fifty students.  He handed out the course syllabus and spent our first session going through the massive amount of work verbally.  I could hear gasps from other students as the presentation progressed.  The session ended and we all went our separate ways.

The next day we met again in the same room.  The professor walked into the room and then made an audible count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight!  “That’s about right!  Let’s walk down the hall and continue in our conference room.”

Those of us who stayed had a great learning opportunity and we worked hard.  But, my greatest moment of learning had nothing to do with the course material.  After our first exam the professor asked me to come to meet with him in his office where we sat down and talked for a few minutes.

“Up until this moment,” He said, “you’ve been getting along on your talent alone.  But, I’m not going to let you do that any more!  It doesn’t matter what the rest of the class is doing.  I’m going to make sure you learn to work!  Talent isn’t enough.  To really become someone special you have to work!”

Work I did!  I had never worked like he made me in my life.  It was hard.  But, I learned so much from him that when I had the opportunity to have him be the chairman my committee in graduate school I snapped it up. 

To be honest, he worked me so hard in graduate school I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.  But I did.  And, after I completed my degree he sat with me and we had another personal talk at the coffee shop.

“Congratulations.” He said.  “You’re one of three who have ever finished their degree with me as the chairman of their committee!  I washed all of the others out.  I don’t remember what point I knew you were going to be one of the ones that finished, but there was a time, fairly early on, I knew you were going to make it.  Now you have to decide what you want out of life, money or power.” (Money and power is another discussion.)

He really taught me that in order to get the most out of the individual talent each one of us has, we need to work hard at improving every day.  It is an individual journey that cannot be compared in detail because each person has a very distinctive, personalized path on which to walk.  But, the partnered principles of talent and work remain universal.  Use them in combination to your benefit.

Take time to examine your unique talents and abilities internally.  Make sure you search the deepest corners of your heart so you understand them as best you can.  Then, work with all your heart to develop your talents.  As you do, you’ll find new aspects of talent and personal strengths you didn’t comprehend before.  It will be a wonderful and challenging experience if you accept the call to become someone special; someone who has become the most they could make of themselves.