Weekly Wisdom #356 - Is Talent Overrated?

Hey, everybody. Dean Graziosi, welcome to the Weekly Wisdom. You know, I decided something pretty important this weekend that I wanted to create a journal for my kids. They're 6 and 8. I talk about them a lot, Brianna and Brody. And someday when I'm gone, I'd love for them to have a journal of how I thought all the mistakes I've made, all the things I've learned. You know, listen, every day I'm trying to give them lessons without being that dad that's always giving lessons, right? And then it hit me. I've been doing a weekly wisdom for you guys. If you're new, it's an honor and pleasure to have you here. If you've been with me for years. You know, it's seven years, I think it is now, every week doing these. And that's my journal. But what I realized is now that's what I want to hand off to them, is these weekly wisdoms. So today is the first day of Next level Weekly Wisdoms. Because what I've decided is these are for my children as well as you. These are what I want them to see when they're older so they really get to know me when they're old enough for this stuff to really sink in and mean something. When they're going through a tough time in a relationship or they want to go the next level in their job, or they want to take their love life or their passion or their intimacy to another level or make more money or reinvent themselves or start a new business, I want them to have the opportunity to watch this. So know that each week when I do these, these are not only for you, but these are for my children. And I'm not going to. I promise. In fact, let me rephrase that. I promise to try and over deliver in these short little videos each week. And today I want to talk about talent. And is talent overrated? You know, I just read a book recently about talent, and it just got me thinking. In so many cases, we're taught that that person was born with that gift. They have that unique ability that they. It just felt easy to them, or I wish I could do what they do, but, you know, I wasn't born with that talent, you know? You know, talent is overrated. I was born with dyslexia and could barely read all through high school and middle school, and I was in special reading. And I felt insecure and I felt incapable, and I felt like I'd never amount to anything. And now I have multiple New York Times best sellers. I wasn't born with the gift to write. I was born with the gift to deliver a message. And a book was a mechanism to get it out. And what did I do? I practiced and practiced, and I was able to write some great books. I wasn't born with the gift to talk to the video camera and give you these messages. In fact, in school, I used to skip school when it was time to stand up in front of the class. I was so shy, I used to hide behind my parents, hide underneath the table. I never thought I could go out in public and speak to 15,000 people and have them on their feet dancing. How come I can talk to a camera or go on stage? It's because of one thing that I share with my kids. It's practice. It's practicing the right way. You know, practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. If you have a bad golf swing and you practice that bad golf swing over and over, it's just going to be a permanent bad golf swing. So what we have to do in life, if there's an area that you want your children to excel in, and my children watch this. Someday, if you want to excel in any area of your life, find someone doing it bigger and better than you. Find the right strategies. And practice. And practice. You know, in studies, they talk about kids that seem like they're prodigies when they play an instrument. But what they realize is when they really dig down, the ones that are the prodigies are the ones that want it really bad. And they rehearse three to four hours a day. And the ones that say, oh, they're a prodigy, they're lucky. We're rehearsing 15 minutes a day, right? They find that composers that compose the most amazing musical or amazing song and they say, my God, that just came to him in a dream. No. They find years of them working on that over and over and crossing out and changing some of the best speeches in the world. They say, God, they wrote that speech while they were in the shower or got up that morning and changed the world. No, they find years of that same speech or months being tweaked, changed and edited. Practice. Practice. Benjamin Franklin, he used to practice every day. Writing. He take an essay and write all the prose, and then he'd go and he'd write all the cons, and he'd match them up and see which one won and find the sentences that made an impact and used more of those and less of the ones that didn't. Guys, the only thing I'm saying is don't overthink talent and think, well, I can't do that because I don't have that gift. If you're passionate and you want it, remember, practicing the right way can make you seem like the talented person. And again, I'm all about not working on your weaknesses. Because if you don't like something, doesn't matter if you're good at it or not. You're never going to take it to another level because you don't like it. But if there's an area you like and you think you can't, think again. Tiger woods, everybody thinks, was just this most incredible golfer in the world. And he was. He's not doing so great now, but if you look back, he loved golf from the age of two and practiced every single day. And then when he comes out at 18, you think he's this prodigy. No, he put the time in and he practiced the right way. So the reason I wanted to share that with you today and someday for my kids is there's nothing you can't do. There's nothing if you won't put your heart to that. You can't change your life. If you're ready to put in the time, roll up your sleeves, do the work and practice, practice and hard work. Every time I ask my kids, how do you get good at something? They'll say, practice and hard work. And that's my message for you today. Hey, you know something I've just totally forgot about? If you're looking to make money in real estate, if you're one of my students who's already making money or want to make money or you're thinking of getting started, there's something I always for to share. That's Insider Elite. That's the most incredible site we've created to support those thinking and wanting to go faster and make money in real estate. From daily videos, from my top students, to weekly live Google hangouts, to the ability to grab a whole bunch of wisdom and capabilities and direction and keep you in the game, keep you on the right track. In fact, what I'd love for you to do is if you're not a member of Insider Elite, I want to do a special $1 trial for you guys. In fact, go to deansinsider.com and I just put up a special quick video and a special opportunity for my DG family to take a test drive for a dollar. But go watch this cool video. Plus it's one of those draw shop videos. I don't know if you ever saw it. While the audio's going, someone's handwriting, everything. It's so awesome. It's just a couple minutes and I think it'll be worth your time. Go to deansinsider.com and take a test drive for a dollar. You will be blown away. I'm Dean Graziosi. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.