Divide Your Interests into Three Categories: Fantasy, Avocation, and Talent


At some point, however, you need to start refining the skill determination process by moving in some general direction. By the time you are a few years into your career, if not earlier, you should be dividing your interests roughly into three categories: fantasies, avocations, and talents. Fantasies are those areas where you have determined that your skill level is too low for you to become a professional. Let go of any pretense that you will succeed in these areas. Do not waste your limited time and energy developing these skills other than as an occasional, compartmentalized outlet for your fantasies. As we said before, you cannot be anything you want to be.

For example, agent Joel Gotler told me that he wanted to be a novelist when he was younger. He read like a maniac. He wrote a lot, too. But soon he realized that he just was not going to make it as a writer. He could write pretty sentences but could not get the story told. So he abandoned his dream to become a writer and never looked back.

Avocations, on the other hand, are areas where you have enough talent that, under the right circumstances, you might be able to excel in that field. "You have to assess your talent ... and [ask yourself] if this is going to be an avocation or a job," according to Norma Clayton. I know an engineer who is quite talented as a painter. He has painted attractive still life oils for friends and family, and he has submitted his work to shows with enough success to know that his dream of becoming a famous painter is not a complete fantasy. Someday he may make it big, so he should never give up on that avocation. In fact, while he has not yet gotten his work displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he has kept his eyes open for other opportunities to advance his artistic endeavors. To his great satisfaction, he has taught art to disabled children, writes art reviews as a paid critic for the local newspaper, and makes a lot of money appraising art for a trust company. In fact, he has established quite a reputation for himself in these endeavors—making frequent television and radio appearances in his city.

This man has a hip-pocket avocation that already brings him some success. Interestingly, most invincible executives do. I mentioned earlier that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice is an excellent pianist; a top lawyer friend of mine is a pretty good weekend racecar driver; another legal eagle friend is a regional triathlon champion; my mentor, Senator John Danforth, is an Episcopal priest. And, while not invincible but trying, I am a numismatic writer and coin collector.

Invincible executives always have interesting avocations (and I don't mean golf) because they have multidirectional minds that they have devoted to discovering their own talents. As a result, they have developed multiple areas of expertise. Anyone who really adopts the skill determination mind-set that all invincible executives have will almost by definition find two or three areas in which he or she has real potential.

In fact, sometimes you only have to make minor adjustments to your fantasies to turn them into professional success. As I mentioned earlier, Joel Gotler, who abandoned his dream of becoming a novelist, made it big representing novelists and screenwriters. Drew Baur, the chairman and CEO of Southwest Bank, was an athlete when he was in high school. But he quickly realized that he lacked the ability to become a professional ball player. Nevertheless, he recognized that his knowledge of baseball—combined with his banking skills—was an avocation that was still worth pursuing. So he spent as much time as he could learning the business of baseball. Eventually, he helped put together an ownership group that bought a major league team. He feels like he is living his fantasy, but none of it would have happened without a healthy dose of realism and the necessary adjustments that turned the fantasy of being a player into the reality of being an owner. I have never met a more professionally satisfied man.




Staying Power. 30 Secrets Invincible Executives Use for Getting to the Top - and Staying There
Staying Power : 30 Secrets Invincible Executives Use for Getting to the Top - and Staying There
ISBN: 0071395172
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 174

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