talent | The Caleb Barney Collection

The difference between good and great

The difference between good and great for most people is not talent or ability – it’s discipline.

Can you find the discipline to do what you don’t want to do, even though you know you need to do it? And the trick is, you can’t just do it once. You have to develop the habit to consistently do what you need to do and to make progress everyday.

Getting even 1% better everyday should be our goal. If we stay in our comfort zone, we will plateau early. But if we keep pushing the limits every day, in 10 years you will be amazed by how far you’ve come.

Effort over (natural) ability

Everyone wants to be extremely talented and to have incredible natural ability. But the reality is that not all of us are blessed with that natural ability. We can’t change that. But what we can change is our effort.

How hard are you willing to work? How much are you willing to sacrifice? Are you determined to make it happen? Do you make a plan and work the plan? Are you intrinsically motivated? Do you work well with others? Do you have a good attitude? Do you show up? Do you follow through with what you say you’ll do?

Your effort in life will play a bigger role than your natural ability. The more effort you give, the more ability you can develop.

Three success factors

To achieve optimum success, one needs to have the ability, work ethic, and luck. One of these is in our control, while the other two are (mostly) not.

Take ability, for example. Some people are born with an innate ability or have the physical characteristics to be more prone to succeed in certain arenas. LeBron James was built to be a superstar athlete. No matter how much work ethic or luck I have, I don’t have the same natural gift/ability that he has. Not many people do. But there have been other athletes who were just as talented as LeBron and who haven’t achieved his level of success. This is because LeBron optimizes his natural ability by also having an incredible work ethic.

This leads to the next success factor, which is work ethic. Work ethic is the only thing we have complete control over. Every morning we wake up, we make the decision on how we want to use our day. When we’re at work, are we actually working or are we scrolling through social media or reading espn? Do we casually going through the day or do we have a plan? Set our intentions for each day. What is the one thing we need to do in each area of our lives (mental, physical, spiritual, relational, financial, and vocational) to get us closer to our goals? Are we living intentionally?

Lastly, the success factor with the biggest variation – luck. Some people seem to have great luck while others have “bad” luck. But while some of what we experience is “luck of the draw,” a lot of times there are little things we can do to better position ourselves. If we have a good attitude, and are a great team player, we generally will have more luck. If we share our goals with other people and are likable, other people will want to help us when they can. But they can’t help us unless they know what we’re aiming for. And they won’t help us if they don’t like us. So be kind to everyone, be generous, be curious, have a good work ethic, contribute to a positive culture, and be willing to be vulnerable. Take calculated risks (preferably asymmetric risks, where the cost is low, but the potential reward is high).

Using the fulfillment triangle when deciding on your career

When you’re at a crossroads and looking to find a new career, take into consideration Ken Coleman’s fulfillment triangle. He describes this as a place where your passion meets your talent and opportunity.

What do you love doing? What are you interested in? What do you find yourself constantly researching or talking about with your friends? Looking at these things can help you figure out what you’re truly passionate about.

What are you good at doing? Has anybody told you that you are a natural at completing a particular kind of task? What do you feel like comes easily to you? When you do things that you are good at, you are usually in a flow state. This is your talent and ability. (By the way, you don’t need to have the ability to do something right now, but if you are capable, that will suffice.)

Who do you know that might be able to introduce you to whatever it is you like and are good at doing? If you’re unsure about this, put the question out on social media. Go on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. and clearly lay out what it is you’re interested in doing. You never know who might have a connection and get you an “in” with a company. This is your opportunity.

Fulfillment triangle from Ken Coleman on the Dave Ramsey Team.

The key to greatness

To be great, you have to be consistent. You have to be disciplined. You may have natural talent/ability, but without nurturing it and growing it through consistent effort, you will never achieve true greatness.

Do you think LeBron James or Michael Jordan were born with gifts that you and I don’t have? Yes. That’s how the world works. Everyone is different. But they also worked tirelessly for years on end, spent millions of dollars investing in their bodies to help strengthen them, honed their craft with hours in the gym, etc. They had natural ability, but so do a lot of other guys in the NBA. It was their consistent, focused effort over many years that helped them become the greatest of all time.

While it is easy to think of sports as the best analogy here, it applies to everything we do in life. Want to be better at your job? What actions are you taking daily to train to become the best? Do you role play scenarios with other team members? Do you take continuing education classes? Do you read about specific subjects to help you or watch “how to” videos?

You don’t improve the most by going to a weeklong seminar once per year and then not doing anything else until next year’s seminar. You improve the most by taking small, focused actions every single day, always building upon the previous day.

What actions are you willing to take to achieve greatness – not today, and not tomorrow, but five, ten, or twenty years from now? Are you able to look at the big picture and base your decisions on that instead of what feels good today? Do you have the discipline to repeat the monotonous actions (slightly/slowly improving over time)? If you want to be mediocre, that’s fine. You can live a good life coasting through it. But if you want to achieve greatness, you have to endure many unheroic days to reach some heroic decades in the future…