Our culture is obsessed with improvement. Throughout your life, you’ve been programmed to overcome weakness and master something you’re really not good at nor care that much about. Don’t waste creative energy getting good at something you suck at!
Recently I was invited to speak to a couple hundred graduating graphic design students at Ferris University Kendall College of Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Of course most of these students were pre-occupied with finding a job, any job, and getting their professional careers in the advertising and marketing business off the ground.
In my talk, I shared some ideas on what it takes to build a foundation for a professional career that can be sustained for three or four decades without burning out ten years down the road. In the question and answer session that followed, one theme stood out:
These young professionals wanted more than a job, they wanted to do work that mattered to them.
They craved deeper insight and ideas on what activity or niche they were best suited to pursue in developing their careers. The intuitive sense that they could only be happy and satisfied if they engage in unique, specific and meaningful work was palpable.
What seemed to be most compelling was my suggestion to build the foundation of professional life from one’s inherent talents and strengths. I advised them don’t spend too much time laboring to master something you have no talent for or interest in.
I call inherent talent the “genius zone”– a zone of activity that represents unending joy, passion, desire, continuous improvement, and opportunity to make your greatest contributions and achievements. In a culture (and educational system) obsessed with improving weakness and getting better at navigating the path of MOST resistance, the idea of playing to natural talents resonated deeply with these young people.
Play to your strengths, forget about improving your weakness.
Micheal Jordan was considered by many people to be the greatest basketball player the game has ever known. He was a genius at playing basketball. He never stopped growing and improving his capabilities to play great basketball. However, as hard as he tried, as long as he practiced, he could never be the “Micheal Jordan” of golf or baseball. He didn’t have the same level of inherent talent for those activities.
It’s a myth in our culture that you can become anything you desire and work hard at achieving. It can be done, but at a high cost for low returns. The lesson here is simple–you have greater potential for sustainable success when you build on who you already are. You cannot be anything you want to be, but you can be far more of who you already are!
The Genius Zone.
Not surprisingly, it’s difficult for many people to describe their natural talent–their genius zone. Many have spent years mastering other activities to a level of mere competence. This can be very frustrating and not a useful and productive expenditure of time and life energy. This has important implication for anything you are working on– career, business, or a fulfilling life.
The genius zone is where all your natural inherent talent resides, and only there will your talent be accessible. Talent is nothing more than a natural way of thinking, feeling or behaving. It’s so natural (like breathing) you hardly give it a second thought. Your talent has always been with you. And regardless of what activities you pursue over time, your talent stays with you.
Natural talent however is not enough. You also need to invest time and energy into building knowledge and developing the necessary skills to be an expert. When you multiply your natural talent with the investment in building skill or knowledge, the sum will be your “core strength” – the ability for continuous growth and contribution in activities that matter to you and serve others.
The genius zone is all about leveraging your core strengths to make quantum leaps in your progress toward the realization of your desires.
In business and in life, focus your vision, your desires, and all your actions on your genius. Your genius is your unique point of difference– the very thing that sets you apart from everyone else in the marketplace. Build strong relationships by partnering with others whose genius is in an area of your weakness. When you do, this will form a powerful combination for creating exponential life success in an easy and relaxed way.
