IN THE BIBLE, YOU’LL find the parable of the talents. Talents were a form of money. The story goes that, before a master left on a trip, he entrusted money to three servants. Two of the three doubled his money, and are praised for the intelligent way they handled the master’s money. The third worker simply buried the money, so it wouldn’t lose value. The master criticizes the third worker for being lazy, and takes the money away from him.
We all have talents—meaning not money, as the term is used in the Bible, but actual God-given talents. Like the servant who buries his master’s money, I believe many people have talents that aren’t fully used. It may be because their family doesn’t consider their talent to be important for the family business. It could be there’s an immediate need for income that prevents them from developing the talents they were born with.
Having an unused talent strikes me as a huge waste. Think of the income you might earn if you pursue a career where your talent is considered essential. Yes, you may have to put in long hours. But since the work comes naturally to you, the long hours shouldn’t be too much of a burden.
Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, in their book Now, Discover Your Strengths, encourage readers to identify their talents, and then apply training to that talent so it becomes their strength. How much training are we talking about?
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell says we need to apply 10,000 hours of work to become proficient at what we do. Gladwell cites Bill Gates, who applied those 10,000 hours to working in his school’s computer lab, developing talents that later became the foundation for Microsoft. What if Gates didn’t have a talent for computer programming? He surely wouldn’t have been successful.
I know someone who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. His mother questioned the value of his education, and convinced him he needed to get a master’s degree. Being smart, he was accepted to Brooklyn Law School and went on to pass the New York bar exam. But while he had the intellectual capacity to pass the exam, legal work wasn’t his passion or his natural talent. He didn’t have the drive to find a job—and he ended up selling vinyl siding.
Have you heard about the mental state known as “flow,” where you become totally absorbed in an activity and lose all sense of time? We experience flow when we do something that’s challenging and we’re passionate about, but for which we also have the talent. What if we don’t have the necessary talent? It’s unlikely we’ll enter a state of flow.
Indeed, we might want to hire help for those activities where we aren’t talented, so we can concentrate on those things we’re good at. For instance, if you’re a business owner with a talent for sales, you might hire an accountant to handle your books.
Some folks have obvious talents: athletics, singing, dancing like Fred Astaire. For the rest of us, our talents are often hidden, and we need to dig deep to discover them. My talent is perseverance.
A recent example: My son and I were out on our daily roadside trash collection. My son found a location where lots of trash and recyclables had accumulated. Others would have looked at the situation and said, “Someone should pick that up.” I looked at it and said, “We have a lot of work to do.” We proceeded to collect all the litter until none was left.
My talent is not going to cure cancer, stop world hunger or bring about world peace. What it will do is make our town a little cleaner.
I appreciate your article and your community service, but disagree with your disparagement of Bill Gates. There is no reason to believe that he was a one trick pony. To have been so successful at one thing leads me to believe that he, and others, have potential to be successful following paths other than the one chosen.
David, I have listened to a pod cast that in part involves a
‘To Don’t‘ list that when we have several tasks to complete, scratch out all but the one you really want to do.
This is the one you probably will achieve flow with and it will get your mind in the correct state. Then the rest of the work pieces will be easier to complete.
I remember a book I read that discussed the Parable of the Talents. The author said, “The third servant wasn’t judged for doing BAD things. He was judged for doing NOTHING.” I find this a challenging insight. Avoiding being “a bad person” is important, of course. But it’s not enough.
When I was young, someone told me that I should find something I enjoy doing, and then figure out how to get paid to do it. IT was that for me. When I was absorbed in programming or solving a technical problem, time passed very quickly. I guess that was flow, but I did not have a name for it then.
Good article and comments below. Richard Feynman advised young people to not focus on what they wanted to be, but rather on what they wanted to do. There are so many tradeoffs one must balance. I think for most, pursuing something which they both love and are good at, and making an informed choice knowing what sort of lifestyle a career in that field will allow for, they will be content.
David…I love the final sentences of your article, “My talent is not going to cure cancer, stop world hunger or bring about world peace. What it will do is make our town a little cleaner.”
It reminds me of the famous quote of Edward Everett Hale, who said, “I am only one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do I ought to do, and what I ought to do, by God’s grace, I will do.”
I would like to say that I faithfully followed that dictum my entire life, but truthfully, I did not. I did discover the opportunity at age 59 to become a college professor, teaching what I had mastered over a 38 year career in financial services.
From 2009 until 2024, I taught Insurance, Financial, and Retirement Planning to thousands of current day credentialed financial advisors. And as what is referred to as “lagniappe” in Louisiana, I experienced the joy of knowing I was making a difference in the lives of many thousands of American Families, as well as the students I helped train to help them.
The Parable of the Talents has always been a favorite of mind.
I think what your talking about here relates to the “ikigai” concept, sometimes called “the hedgehog”. Ikigai is a venn diagram of the following four things:
1) what you love
2) What the world needs
3) what you can get paid for
4) what you’re good at
As you cover here, these four things don’t always align.
My only talent is I’m a great kisser. Or so my wife says.
Actually, I was born with a great talent — I was something of a math prodigy. I could do long division in my head at age 7, instantly.
Thing is, though, I hated math. Hated it. I’d sneak a library book into math class and read it in the back row, or just drift off to sleep, knowing I could ace the tests without paying any attention.
For life and profession, I chose words over numbers. No regrets. Even though today I can’t even balance my checkbook without a calculator.
Mike, Some time ago I bought a tape series on relationships to better understand a woman and there’s for sure things to learn! Good going perfecting “the kiss.”
My son didn’t get through High School and was only able to get a GED. Now, he is the manager of maintenance training for mass transit light rail trains.
He told me school was such a bore and couldn’t stand being in class. I didn’t recognize my boys problem, otherwise I would have pursued some kind of higher classes for him.
Perhaps if you had been in some advanced math program it would have made a difference for your mind to be engaged for once.
Excellent post! I like the analogy between Biblical talents and developed abilities.
The only talent I seem to have is always picking the slowest check-out line.
If you happen to see me waiting in line say ‘Hi!’ and stand behind anyone else.