The gift of talent

It’s the Christmas season and some will focus on the many gifts that we receive and give. However, there is another more basic and fundamental gift that I want to concentrate on: the gift of talent. Everyone  from the most exalted and successful to the simplest and poorest of persons  has been given a special talent. For people like me, who believe in God  whether you call him/her Allah, Yahweh, Jesus, etc.  the belief that life has a purpose is simply unquestionable. And since life has an objective, then everyone must similarly have been created for a purpose; and with that purpose is embedded and enmeshed the unique talent that is necessary to fulfill it.

Now, I don’t know what your specific talent is but I want to give you some tips on how to maximize your talent and succeed. I’ll use my own personal experience of obtaining a master’s degree in law from Harvard University as an example. Some of you will be rolling your eyes, saying that I’m being arrogant or puffing myself up by using my graduating from Harvard as an illustration. That’s fine, but my purpose is neither arrogant nor self-promoting; rather it is a true and personal account of how I, a middle-class (read: not rich), ethnic Filipino Muslim lawyer, was able to overcome numerous obstacles to become the first Filipino Muslim to graduate from Harvard Law School.

1. Believe in your talent. Honestly, I considered studying at Harvard pretty much an impossible dream: I couldn’t afford it, not merely the travel, tuition fees and living expenses, but also the loss of income by stopping my legal practice, which would be problematic, if not insurmountable, for me and my young family. Additionally, my grades in law school weren’t exceptional, something that I attribute both to too much partying and having to deal with the death of my father in my second year of law school and financial difficulties I experienced because of his demise. The grades were a serious disadvantage, particularly because the admissions process for Harvard Law School’s International Program were so competitive  basically, you compete with some of the top legal scholars from all over the world for a very few spots. I had focused so much on the obstacles in my path that, essentially, I had given up on studying abroad, specifically at Harvard. Fortunately, I had married a wise woman and my wife, instead of seeing the obstacles, saw my talent and potential and encouraged me to send my application anyway. She said, “Get accepted first and we’ll worry about the other stuff later on.” In fact, her mere encouragement to send in an application had achieved something very significant  her belief planted the germ of conviction that I had the talent to succeed and achieve this goal. Every achievement, unless it’s based on pure luck, which is incredibly rare, must be based in the belief in your talent. Lucky for me I had someone like my wife who believed in my own talent even before I believed in it myself.

2. Team up. This, perhaps, is the most important advice: no one succeeds on his own. I disagree completely with the Horatio Alger myth of the “self-made man.” Only God is self-sufficient; mere mortals like us need the help of others to succeed. I am very fortunate that, not only did I have a spouse who believed in my talent and encouraged me, but I have one who even went the extra mile to sacrifice so that I could achieve my dreams. So, following my wife’s advice, I sent my application form and to my great surprise, I was accepted! I still remember getting my letter from the admissions office and feeling that I had achieved something just by being deemed worthy of enrolling in Harvard Law School. I had basically planned to frame the acceptance letter because I knew for a fact that my family didn’t have the resources to pay for the costs of studying in Boston. Again, my wife surprised me  she told me not to frame the letter because she would find a way for me to get the funds I needed. Somehow, she was able to borrow money, which we have now repaid, to cover the costs of matriculation and the loss of income from my practice. Simply put, my wife is a wonderful blessing and for anyone to succeed he will need the help of others. No matter how talented you are, unless you have a team  or a great spouse  behind you, you will never fully develop you talent and your will not succeed.   

3. Prepare. No matter how talented you are, there is always someone as good, if not better, than you. So if you want to fully realize your talent and succeed, then you must prepare and continually hone your skills. Regarding my application for Harvard, my wife and I didn’t merely get a form and send it out. Instead, we planned a few years in advance on how to address my less-than-stellar academic credentials, which we did by my getting into the academe and teaching and my obtaining a master’s in public administration from U.P. Careful planning, preparation, and of course hard work on my part  studying and teaching at night while I worked at Attorney Mendoza’s office during the day  made my application a successful one. 

4. Stay away from negative people. Negative people suck. No, really: these people will suck out your energy and your will to succeed. Stay away from them like the plague. I remember when my mom found out that I had sent my application to Harvard Law School, she proudly announced that I’d be studying at Harvard University. Behind her back, some relatives and friends of ours sneered and claimed that no Moro has ever graduated from Harvard Law School so why would Adel be the first? Well, I would be the first because I believed in my talent, my wife supported me, and I worked very hard, that’s why. If you are forced to interact with these negative people, perhaps because they are co-workers or family, remember that their negativity will only work if you give it permission to work on you. Also, the more you succeed, the more strident they will be, so be ready for that.

5. Share your talent. The ultimate value of our talent is achieved by sharing it with others. Whatever skill or talent you have was given for a reason and since man is, by nature, a social and political animal, then it should be used for the benefit of others. Put another way, sharing your talents will not only help you succeed but it’ll help to hone it as well. Jesus’ Parable of the Talents is the clearest example of this. Basically, the parable tells of a master who, before embarking on a long journey, entrusts to three of his servants “talents,” which was actually a large unit of money. The first two servants invest and use the money properly so that when the master returned, they gave him back the talents, which had been multiplied by their industry. The third servant had foolishly hidden the talent in the ground, out of fear of losing the talent, and because he had not used and multiplied his talent, the third servant was banished from the master’s household. Just as in this parable, our failure to share our talents with others or simply the failure to use our gifts for the betterment of our communities will ultimately be disastrous to us. At the very least, our talents will fail to grow and develop if we merely hide them in the ground and fail to share them with others.

Finally, let me end by sharing with you a part of my commencement speech at my graduation from Harvard Law School in 2005. I was chosen by my graduating class to be a Class marshal and commencement speaker. The message of the speech ties in with the idea that our talents are a true gift and that they are best used when they are utilized in helping others:

“So where do we go from here? This is a question that each one of us, the 162 members of the LL.M. Class of 2005, will have to answer on our own and in our own time. We all desire to succeed and success itself can be defined and achieved in myriad ways. But one thing is certain  if your graduation becomes the high-water mark of your life, then you have failed to achieve the hopes of this institution. More importantly, you will have failed yourself. Again, we must never forget that much is expected of us... the real value of our education will be assessed in terms of our making the world a more just, peaceful, equitable, environmentally sustainable, and tolerant place for our children.”