The violin and the painting

A senior citizen was clearing out his attic when he came upon an old painting and a violin. Thinking they might be valuable, he took them to the auction house to be valued.

After studying them, the appraiser said, “Mr. Cooper, I have good news and I have bad news.”

“What’s the good news?” the senior asked.

“The good news is that you have a Stradivarius and a Picasso,” replied the appraiser.

“Fantastic! What’s the bad news?”

“Well sir, the bad news is that Stradivarius was a very bad painter and Picasso was no good with violins.”

Michael Jordan was exceptional with basketball. He is considered the best in the field. Although Michael Jordan tried really hard, he sucks at baseball.

No matter how good you are in your chosen field and how famous you have become, it would be very foolish to think that you would be good at everything you do and everything that is given to you.

When a person becomes famous and starts to entertain crazy ideas that he or she would be good at anything they put their hands on, the people around that personality might urge him or her to “go for it.” And that is the problem.

And the result would be disastrous.

Shaquille O’Neal, with his physique was a natural when it comes to basketball. Suppose at age four his parents would tell him: “Son, you can be anybody you want to be and you can do anything you want to do.” I assume Shaq would not have grown up and made a good horse jockey though.

This is why I have never told my kids the same thing. Instead, I told them to search out their unique talents and work it to the max so that they can be the best at what they do.

The building of confidence is on the dedication and the work that has to be done, not on the “positive psyche” of being anyone and doing anything they want to be.

Truth to tell, if you ask the young kids today what they want to be, most of them will tell you they want to become rock stars, movie celebrities or TV personalities and many of them will get disappointed.

Talents are God-given. In a typical auditorium where I would speak, there would be people inside who could sing well, others who could dance well, and while one person would struggle with doing a public presentation, another one would be extremely good with public speaking.

These are talents that are given and there is nothing much we can do about it. Skills are what a person does with the talents. They work on it, they hone it, they learn more about it and they develop it and thus their talents become a skill. Some people depend on talents all their life and they never build it into a skill.

Think back of the famous movie personalities as well as athletes that became household names. Their talents brought them to the top but they never grew and never developed it into skills.

Many of them grew old, but they never even grew up. And life catches up with them. The world changes and new talents come into the picture and these “has-beens” are conveniently pushed into the sidelines or pushed to oblivion.

Success can lead to hubris.

This principle that works for individuals can also transpire to business organizations. They are good with one field and then decide that they can also be good at any field they choose to be in.

Many fail ,but others succeed. And what is the difference?

Successful companies that ventured out into other fields and disciplines understand that they need to get experts to run their businesses and give them the freedom to do the things they’re good at. And then the leaders who are not experts get out of the way and allow the competent folks to do their job.

This, in itself, takes a lot of humility to admit but they accept reality and work their way to becoming successful. Meanwhile, those who have failed did so because they thought they possessed superpowers and were invincible and that whatever they work on will become prosperous.

Well, you can be a Picasso, but suck at violins and be a Stradivarius but would be a joke when it comes to painting. Be the best at your chosen field and have the humility to admit that you need help in other areas. This is what successful people have discovered and they keep on succeeding in the process.

God will not take away from you what He did not put into you. So if God has not given you a good voice, then do not aspire to have a CD.

(Attend “Stand Out for Outstanding Performance” will be held on Sept. 9 at the Metro Tent inside Metro Walk along Ortigas Blvd. Be inspired and learn from speakers  Chinkee Tan, Bryan Kong and Karen Davila as they share principles on how to become great achievers. For further inquiries contact Inspire at 09158055910 or call 632-6310912 or 6310660 for details)