Episode 86: Gifts Versus Skills with Million Dollar Earner Larry Stephens

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Wydell. And let's get started. Welcome back to Larry Stevens. Welcome back, Larry.

Or it sounds like welcome back. Carter. Always loved it.

Yeah. And I'm still. I'm still cousin. You're still Larry for the purposes.

That's right. That's right. Don't get the roles mixed up here.

Yeah. And let's dig deeper into removing the question about gifts versus skills. I know you've had a lot of insight on that. And these are things the clear you are in your own mind about gifts and skills. We all question ourselves. We all look at other people and say they got other advantages. You know, why are things so hard for me? Why do I have to work so hard and not get the results? Other people seem to get it easier. The clearer you are on understanding what gifts really are and what skills really are and how you get those things, how you develop those things, the more focused and energized you're going to be and the more likely you're going to stay on the track you need to stay on with high energy. So, Larry, what, what kind of insight can you give us on gifts versus skills?

I like the verses word that you used because really they're not one and the same. Because if you are gifted at something, you have the gift. Like the Lord speaks of the spiritual gifts we have or the gifts of the spirit, which we all have to some lesser or greater degree. But a gift is something that in my mind, that will show itself to you and it will just flow from you and it can be like your absolute best friend in your work life, in your family life. It just comes to you. A skill is something that you can be taught. I used to when I was doing the hiring of sales guys, there would always be somebody that screened them, at least two screeners before they got to me. And they would say, well, this guy's gifted at. This guy's gifted. That. But to stay in the business long term, giftedness wasn't enough to stay in the business long term and to grow, you had to learn the skills that were required for our particular business. And all that meant was that somebody, in this case me, I could teach those people the skills that they needed. We never hired bond salesmen. I think once or twice somebody came to us and said, hey, I really want to be with your firm. And we hired them. But for the most part, we hired school teachers, we hired coaches. We hired people that were relatable primarily that were really good communicators and if I was trying to recruit a guy to be on our team, if I had somebody that I'd been an influencer with and I was trying to get him to see, hey, I need you to consider coming with us. Think of a guy named Bob. I won't say his last name, but a guy named Bob. And he was just a natural with people. And he said, but Larry, I don't have those gifts to show people something and to ask for the order or to explain that kind of bond. I don't know anything about that. I say, hey, don't worry about that. You have the gifts that you need. Let me teach you the skills that you don't have. Recognizing that you're not gonna start doing A plus work on those skills, but you just keep doing them over and over and over again. And like steel on steel, it sharpens the sword.

And I guess you saw some amazing turnarounds there in people coming into the industry with those people skills, that communication skills, their relatability knack and be able to learn the presentations and really convince themselves that this was something they could really be successful at. And it's always fun to see people, to walk people through that and get them started in a new business that they never thought, maybe thought it was too complicated or too overwhelming. But the step by step and the training, how any, any insights about help, helping people or teaching in the skills and developing that to do that.

Okay, question one more time, Larry.

When you, you know, you, you have this conversation with people and you get, you know, you let them, you know, get them where they got it clear in their mind they need to develop these skills. They want to give it a try. Now, how did you go about bringing people on? Were there any guiding principles that worked for you more than others in getting people established on the skill side of things?

Okay, before I answer that, can I just back you up? I wanted to. I thought I heard a different question a second ago.

Yeah, go ahead.

We're talking about, as I, as I watch the gifts and the skills things over time, the interesting way it would play out with the people that we recruited.

Yeah, right.

One of the ways that it played out is the person that looked like a surefire winner because they were so gifted, they were so smooth, they were good looking, personable, they were just reeking with gifts. It was very authentic. Or sometimes the case that that person would fall by the wayside and the person that you would hire because they were a good communicator, they were relatable. They had what it took to stay the course for the long term. And as the leader, trainer, teacher, you were continually. Like you're doing with your group. You're continually feeding them. You're continually giving them new ideas. You're continually having little, short, small meetings, not kicking them in the butt, but saying, hey, you know, we talked about this before and we need to sharpen the edge of this. That person is still in the business, that person is still rising in income, or is the person that's just overwhelmed with giftedness but doesn't put in the hard work to learn the skill and to sharpen the skill, they fall away like separating the wheat from the chef.

Absolutely true. And you see it again and again. And I'm again reminded of that something Jerry Seinfeld said talking to another comedian. He said, you know, he said, one thing I hate to hear is a guy who's going to go on stage, and I'll talk to him right before, you know, new comedian, young comedian on the way up, and I'll ask him, what's your first line going to be, your first, you know, two jokes or something like that before he goes on stage? And he'll look at me and say, oh, I'm just going to wing it. And he said. He said, yeah, yeah, you do that. And he said, the guys that write, 25 years later, the guys that write and have a plan before they go out on stage. And he said, 25 years later, they're still comedians. And the guy that was going to wing it, 25 years later, he's a waiter at a restaurant somewhere.

Exactly. That's exactly it. Totally.

And I do think, and I think you alluded to this in your first episode where you said I was average, everything, basically, growing up in high school, athletics, academics, everything. But, you know, socially, you know, I didn't have a huge strength. I didn't stand out anywhere. But I had one clear thing in my mind, and that was I was going to have to work hard. And that the importance of hard work, and that's kind of the most important thing. I think about this, Larry, all the time. When they draft NFL players and NBA players, you know, they manage the statistics at the combines, you know, how fast they are, how high they jump and this. That the other put.

And how the giftedness.

Yeah, yeah, the giftedness. And, you know, the deal is, you know, it's kind of like Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf, you know, they were like, supposedly equal coming out of college, and there's a big debate which would be the number one Draft pick. But the thing that they. I've never heard any announcer talk about this. I've never really heard any coach or talent evaluator talk about this. The thing that really made the difference, Ryan Leith had every bit of the skill and more that Peyton Manning had. But what Peyton Manning had was an unbelievable work ethic and love for the game and drive to get better, which is now shown, you know, even after he's retired. He's got, you know, he goes and he's got a ESPN series where he's interviewing, you know, the hundred greatest things about the NFL and meeting all the people and this, that, the other. He's still trying to learn and develop and grow his love for the game. But it's a matter of when you're drafting and they spend, you know, 10, 20, you know, 10, 20, 30, 40, $50 million on these top draft picks. But the thing they ought to be looking at is how hard would this person work, how driven are they to get better? It's not how good you are when you come in the door, it's how much better are you gonna be down the road? In fact, I want to pull this out. One of the things that Bob Turley told me, the picture for the Yankees, who trained me in this business, you know, Cy Young Award winner Hickok Belt, won three out of four games of the 1958 World Series. He said, after being in the locker room with the Yankees and meeting all the celebrities and presidents and this, that, the other. He said, he told me this when he was like, 83, 84 years old. And his. He only had his right mind about 30% of the time. And I was asking him, you know, about, you know, to remember way back. And after about an hour and a half, he just kind of a light of clarity, a moment of clarity came, and he said, Larry, you know, he said, the thing about the great ones is three things he rattled off just like that. And this was worse. The hour and a half of going through everything. He said, number one, they don't think they're that great. Number two, they work hard every day to get better. And the third thing is they love it a little bit more than everybody else. And amen. And two, you know, if you're evaluating people or you're evaluating yourself, the thing that's going to allow you to become outstanding is that cumulative effort that you make. And again, I'll point this out. This is something I never stop pointing out, the difference between 99 and 100%, if you. Let's just say you put in 98% of the effort. Well, if you could squeeze another 1% effort into every day, that 1% effort, gonna maybe you never would. None of us ever do 100% of what we're capable of. But let's just say you squeeze another 1% of whatever you're doing, that 1% adds up day, week, month, year. And that's gonna transform you and transform your results compared to everybody else. Because it does compound. And that's what you're talking and that's what you're talking about with developing the skills and developing the gifts, if I understand you right.

Yeah. Well, look at all the guys on tour today, particularly the Bryson DeChambeau guy, whether you like him, don't like him, I don't care. If you could improve by 110 of one stroke every month, he would be winning all the majors pretty stinking soon.

Absolutely.

It's just, and you said 98. Let's see, a guy's at 85%, right? He could get 1% more. He's at 86. If he could get 1% more the next time, pretty soon he's right to your 98. You know, pushing on the limit.

Yeah. And that goes back to the Al Pacino speech in any given Sunday where he's talking to the football team, you know, the big rah rah coaches speech that, you know, football is a game of inches. And where are those inches? He said everywhere, every play. You know, the, the question is, are we going to be, are we, do we want it bad enough to fight for those inches? The. Because that's how we're going to beat him, you know, not necessarily some dramatic one play. And that's how you could build an incredible career for yourself and pretty much any area of life where you feel called to excel. So thanks so much, Larry. Any last insight or comment about that before we move on from gifts and.

Skills only Just this while, I wanted to differentiate between gifts and skills because there are people that could come into your line of work not thinking they could do well, but with the skills than they can over the long haul. Two things can happen. One, you can work at something so long and get so good at it that you become gifted at it. So it is possible to turn a well practiced skill into who you are into a gift. Then, then you really have it. And the last little thing on this topic, and I'm here again, I'm not trying to sell any of John Maxwell's books, but John once said at a, when he was speaking in church Actually, he said you don't want a major on your minors. You want a major on your majors. And if you actually are really just not good at one particular thing, well, so what? That, that's just only one particular thing. Don't spend all your time trying to get better at that one thing. Figure out something that you're 70% good at and get a whole lot better at that, because that's going to move you along a lot more than trying to improve on something that you should just really probably shuck that. Commit with your personality and your skill set. Work on the areas where you do show growth in your skills and your giftedness.

Absolutely. You got to go. If you're going to be great, you got to go with your strengths and give your weaknesses or weaker areas kind of time to come in and come online. And that goes back to the, you know, you take. That's what you do like 99% of the time. And then 1% was what we were talking about on a previous episode. You take a little time out and you say, what are the areas that I've got that maybe I'm dropping the ball myself and that maybe I need to improve on? And am I willing to do that? So you have these little timeout reassessments, but you don't do that all day, every day focusing on your weakness. You know, you got to go with your strengths and let those things pay off for you, because the strength you have today could be an even bigger strength tomorrow if you. It's like growing a muscle. You got it. You got to go.

You shouldn't write a book. Who would buy a book from Larry Wydell? I don't. Who would buy art from Larry Wydell? I don't know.

I put that. I put myself through that purgatory once. Okay. Hopefully I'm not going to do it again. But anyway, thanks so much, Larry. This has been great.

Glad to do it, buddy.

All right, thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Wydell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Widel Academy YouTube channel and visit us on widelonwinning. Com. I'm the Million Dollar Mastermind. And until next time, go.