Sweat Your Assets

In the previous article Unlocking Your Value, I briefly shared that businesses unlock their value by sweating their assets. These assets include among others material, human, financial, intellectual resources. Your life too has a number of assets which are: your talents, personality, hands (skills), your heart (passion) and your head (knowledge). These are the assets in which God has deposited your keys to a successful life. I want to share a number of insights on how you can sweat these assets. To sweat your assets means to maximise the value you can get from your skill set, personality profile and knowledge set.

 Stir Up Your Talent

Businesses and organizations have a core competency – what they are really good at. This is what gives them a competitive edge. MacDonald’s core competency is convenience and Nandos’ is flame grilled chicken, yet they are both into fast foods. Core competency is a talent – it’s what separates you from everybody. Talents are like a fire, if you don’t fan them they will lose their flame. If you don’t use it, you lose it. You need to keep you gift ablaze by exercising it. To get an edge in life, you need to do that which nobody else does better than you. What are you good at? What are you known for?

Each one of you is gifted and graced in a particular area. Your gift is your area of strength and competency. This is what gives you the ‘in the zone’ feeling or the state of being in ‘your element’. You will get the most astounding results when you play to your strengths. You succeed the most when you live life according to how you are wired. A fish is gifted in swimming. It would never do well in flying. When you keep your gift ablaze soon people will come and see the brightness of your light or just bask in the warmth of your glare.

 Know Too Much About A Little

Talent is so specific and narrow. Tiger Woods is a prolific golfer, never mind his off the course misadventures, of which none of us should judge him – we must intercede for his salvation. His short game is not as good as his swing or long game. He has mastered his swing and fully understands the physics behind the swing. He is good when he is using the driver to swing the ball. He practices his swing by hitting 1000 balls on the driving range. This is why he has a prolific under par – he hits the least number of balls (birdies or eagles) to get a hole. He plays to his strengths.

For the non golfers let’s use an example from soccer. Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is a prolific soccer striker. I doubt he would be a good defender like Chelsea’s Ashley Cole. Messi doesn’t have to be all over the pitch to be successful – he focuses on getting behind defenders and putting the ball in the net. The best sermons are not those preached with too wide scholastic erudition, but with simplistic depth. I worked in consulting and the best consultants where those who had narrow depth (knowing too much about a little). What do you know?

The plant which yields the most fruit is not the one which spreads its branches the widest, but the one which sends its roots the deepest. Your seeds of greatness are hidden in your hands, heart and head. Don’t try to do, just be. You are not a human doing, you are a human being. It’s not about what you do, but who you are. Just be yourself – sweat YOUR assets.

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