Business Finds

Building Your Skills

Creating value is a skill. Delivering value is a skill too. Don’t expect to master either of these skills right out of the gate. It takes practice and effort to become competent. It takes even more practice to develop expertise. There’s no entitlement here, so get that silly notion out of your mind.

If you want to get good at anything, you must practice it for years. In the beginning you will almost certainly stink. That’s okay. Beginners are supposed to stink. But don’t give up. Realize that you must begin as a white belt if you wish to become a black belt. And if you’re going to train for such a long period of time, you’d better fall in love with the sport.

In order to get good at delivering value, I spent many years working on my communication skills. I trained myself to become a decent writer. People sometimes ask me how they can become better writers or bloggers. I advise them to write a thousand articles or short stories over a period of several years, and post them for free like I did. Then listen to the feedback from readers, and keep making small adjustments to improve. That’s my honest answer, but of course some people would prefer a quick fix they can implement right away. The best quick fix I can offer is to adopt a solid work ethic and to stick with it for years.

I got a C+ grade on my first high school English essay. That was upsetting to me because I worked hard on it, but a C+ level of quality was the best I could do. I was a natural at math, but writing was difficult for me; I just wasn’t very good at it. However, I committed to working hard so I could get good at it, and more than two decades later, I’m able to create and deliver a lot of social value as a writer. That’s because I put in the effort to learn the craft of writing. It largely came down to lots of hard work and practice. Five years from now I’ll be an even better writer because I’ll continue practicing the craft, listening to feedback, and refining my skills. And take note that the refinement process is focused on getting better at creating value for other people. I don’t put much effort into learning new skills that won’t help me express value that people actually care about.

It’s fine to do other work to pay your bills on the side while you’re building your skill at creating and delivering value. By all means take care of your needs. But don’t get so caught up in making a living that you lose sight of the big picture. If you really want to experience abundance, then you’ll want to master at least one form of value creation and delivery that you enjoy.

Talk Is Cheap

Now you may be thinking, this is easier said than done. And of course that’s true. So focus on the doing, not on the saying.

Talking about what you’re going to do doesn’t create or deliver any value. Nor does thinking about it. At some point you have to engage your creative energies and take action.

Quite often people feel compelled to tell me about what they’re going to do. Sometimes their ideas are quite compelling, but only rarely do those same people follow through and actually implement them. And of course they don’t receive any flow-back of abundance because talking about the ideas doesn’t deliver any real value.

How much value is being delivered when you talk about the business you’re going to start, the song you’re going to compose, or the product you’re going to create? None whatsoever. So why bother talking about it at all? It’s fine to talk about it if you’re actually going to do it, but make sure that your talk doesn’t become a substitute for action. If you keep talking and not doing, perhaps it’s better to shut up about it. I rarely talk about the articles I’m going to write because I know that doesn’t create any value. The value only gets delivered when I publish something. So instead of talking, I prefer to get busy writing.

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Personal Growth by Business Finds