The Two Saddest Words

Today's Biz Growl is all about one question. And I promise, I promise it's not political. But here's the question. Are you willing to join the 1%? Hello there. Hello there. This is Brent Kelly of Biz Griz with another daily Biz Growl podcast. Now this podcast podcast episode, I try to keep these all to about five minutes, ish. This one may be a few minutes longer. But hey, first of all, I think the content is really good and it'll be helpful and valuable to you. And secondly, it's my birthday today, so I get the ability to go a little longer than I normally do. But anyway, I tease this by talking about, are you willing to join the 1%? And I'm going to get to that in a second. But I first want to start this off by telling you two of my least favorite words in the English language, at least when they're positioned together. I really believe that two of the saddest words in our language are the words wasted potential. Wasted potential. I'm a. If you don't know by now, I'm a sports fan. I'm also a football fan. Now, I don't watch as much nearly as I used to, but every year, so it's coming up here in a few months, the National Football League, the NFL holds their football draft, their annual football draf. And again, I used to pay more attention to this, but it's interesting because, you know, experts and the franchises and scouts, right, they all analyze and rank all of the college football players to decide what players they want to draft to improve their team. And the word that you'll hear over and over and over and over again is potential, right? You hear things like, you know, high ceiling, you know, all those kind of things. What could they be? You know, a few years, they're going to be great. And so before any of these amateur players have ever stepped onto a field, at least in the National Football League, they'll label athletes with certain natural talents, right, based on speed or their jumping ability or their strength or whatever, and some long term expectations. And what's interesting is, and this is in every sport, but you'll have people who are drafted in the top 10, top 20, right, first round. And some will turn out to be absolute superstars and others are complete busts, right? At least in terms of what their potential could have been. And there's others that get drafted later or maybe are free agents that turn out to be superstars, right? So you just, you never know. And so the question is, why isn't it some of the most naturally gifted athletes, those that if you look at just their speed, their strength, whatever it is, even some of their skills with this potential to don't make it. Why is it? I think it could be a number of reasons, but many times they discover that natural talent isn't enough because maybe God given ability got them through high school or even college, right? They're just a natural athlete. But it takes you, and I know this, it takes more than just natural talent, right? You've got to combine that with some effort, right? And at the highest levels, a lot of effort, in fact. So just think back even to school, right? Think back to grade school. I can think of my. In my own school you had people that would be very naturally talented in academics, right? Maybe they studied some, but not a lot. They were just naturally good at school, right? Especially at the early ages, it was kind of easy for them. Same things in athletics. There was maybe a young athlete. I had a kid on my seventh grade basketball team who was fully mature in seventh grade. He never grew past seventh grade, but in seventh grade, man, he was dominant. But it came naturally to them. And what happens is this natural talent that you have. And by the way, you have natural, God given strengths, that's a powerful thing. You have God given natural talents, natural strengths. And when I teach the law of awareness, I help people uncover that. What is it? Have you really thought about what makes you special, unique and different? And sometimes it's hard for people to really understand. It gives you an advantage over others. Just like I talked about, you know, the people in the NFL and kids in academics and maybe some kids in, you know, athletics growing up in basketball or football or whatever it may be. But here's what I'm getting to and here's where I'm getting to the 1%, I promise. But being naturally skilled or gifted in a certain area, which is a great thing by the way, it'll get you to a certain point. But sooner or later that natural talent must be accompanied by hard work and effort if you're going to rise, if you're going to remain at the top. You know, if you don't know me, I'm part of the John Maxwell team and my mentor, John Maxwell, I heard him speak live and one of the things that he said, I just, it just, it really captivated me. It was very powerful. I want to share it with you. He said this. He said if you're gifted, and like I said, we all have gifts, but if you're gifted and you do Nothing. You're just good at accounting. You're just good at people skills. You just naturally get along with people. If you do nothing with that, you're going to be in the top 50% just by showing up. It's kind of the participation award. You kind of got some natural inkling. You're good at it. You show up, you're in the top 50%. Now, that also shows that we kind of have an average society. That's a whole different podcast. But if you're gifted and you do nothing, you'll be in the top 50%. This is what John Maxwell said, and he said, if you're gifted and you do something, you'll be in the top 10%. Now, here's where I want to encourage and challenge you to go. This is the initial tease of this podcast. He finally stopped and said this. He goes, if you're gifted and you do everything, if you're gifted, you find your gift and your talent, your strength, and you do everything, everything to maximize that, you will be in the top 1% of your industry. See, finding and using your natural talent, it's only half the battle. That's where a lot of people stop. Well, if I can just show up, I'll be good enough. But it's up to you to put in the work to rise and stay at the top of your profession. To be in the top 1%, you're going to have to combine your natural talent, which you need to find it. I always tell people, don't, don't sit and spend all your time on your weaknesses because you're going to get frustrated, but find your strengths and then maximize it with all, not some, all of your effort. I tell insurance professionals, insurance leaders, insurance producers, be the 1%. Be that top 1% in your industry. Don't sell yourself short and have people talk about, well, you know, we brought Johnny on and he really, boy, I tell you what, he impressed us in the interview. Really sharp, just smart, good schooling, good people skills. But, man, that was about as far as it got because he took some shortcuts. He didn't apply all the effort. Just because something comes natural to you doesn't mean it. Doesn't mean that it requires less work. In fact, when something comes natural to you, I think it means more work because I think it's a sign. It's a gift, but it's a gift that you can use. It's a gift that you should use. Success is no accident, right? Here's success. Talk about success all the time. And that means different things for different people. But success is about hard work. It's about perseverance, it's about learning, it's about studying, it's about sacrifice. And most of all, it's the love of what you do and what you're learning to do. And so I just again, when I say be the top 1%, focus on your strength and do everything to maximize those strengths. You look at world class performers in any industry, any stage, on any field, whatever, however you want to look at it, right? The top 1% have amazing natural talent, right? And some people go, well, they're just lucky. But there's a lot of people with natural talent and some of them are at the top and some of them have faded away. And you know what they often say with people that have natural talent who are never heard from again. Again, the two saddest words I believe put together in this English language is wasted potential. Looking back on what might have been. Find your strength. Maximize it. Hey, thanks for taking some time to listen to today's daily biz growl again, my Brent Kelly of Bizgriz. You can find me at bizgriz.com or brentmkelly.com it takes you to the same happy place. I know your time is valuable, I know you're busy and again, I do appreciate your time and listening to my content. And if you do like it, if it's added value to you, I'd love you to go to itunes or stitcher and leave me a nice review if it's deserved. If not, then give me that review as well. But I'd appreciate that as it spreads the message. Let more people know of what I'm doing to help insurance professionals succeed. So again, this is Brent Kelly and as always, asking you to go face your grizzly.