Sitting On Your Talent

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! 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, however, passed down through jazz circles. 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 trio play. But one night, a patron wanted them to sing a particular song. The trio declined. But the customer was persistent. He told them bartender,

"I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that guy to sing!"

The bartender shouted across the room to the piano player,

"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 not sung much in public, sang a song that changed his career. For 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 clubs and 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?"

Others ask, "How will I use the ability that I have?"

Steve Goodier Author of "Joy Along The Way"