Don’t Waste Your Talents - #26

Grin & Barrett #26: Don’t Waste Your Talents

 “Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?”- Benjamin Franklin

 A wealthy father was getting older and starting to think about how to divide his estate, businesses, and responsibilities among his children. Rather than simply handing everything over, he decided to test them.

He gave his oldest son $500K, his middle daughter $300K, and his youngest son $100K. The amounts were different because each child had different levels of experience, judgment, and capability.

The instructions were simple: Be a good steward of what you’ve been given. Do what you think is best. At some point, I’ll ask for it back along with whatever gains you’ve created.

The oldest son invested the money in businesses and ventures. When his father returned, he handed back five times the original amount.

The middle daughter did the same. Different amount. Different strategy. Same principle. She handed back three times what she was given.

The youngest son took a different path. He put the money in a savings account, avoided risk, and when his father came back, he essentially returned the same amount he had received. Technically, he didn’t lose it – but that was not the point.

The father was disappointed. Not because the youngest failed to turn $100K into $500K. Not because he underperformed his siblings, but because he did nothing meaningful with what had been entrusted to him. He protected the principal but wasted the opportunity.

Most of us will never be handed $100K, $300K, or $500K as a test from a wealthy father, but all of us have been given something. E.g., talent, time, relationships, intelligence, energy, opportunity, etc.

What are you doing with what you have been given?

Focus on What You Were Given

The first thing worth noticing is what the siblings didn’t do. They didn’t waste time comparing. The middle daughter didn’t complain that her older brother got $500K. The youngest son didn’t need to measure his $100K against someone else’s $300K.

Each person had a different starting point. That’s life. Some people are born with more money. Some with better connections. Some with more natural ability. Some with fewer obstacles in the way.

That may be true, but it is not a useful place to live mentally. Comparison is often just procrastination dressed up as analysis. At some point, you have to stop auditing everyone else’s hand and start playing your own. You may not control what you were given, but you are responsible for what you do next.

Get to Work

The real lesson is not complicated. Don’t be lazy with what has been entrusted to you.

The youngest son’s mistake was not caution. Caution has its place. His mistake was passivity. He mistook preservation for stewardship.

Most wasted talent does not look dramatic. It looks like waiting, but the timing will never be perfect, and the risk will never be zero.

At some point, you have to put what you have been given to work. Not recklessly, but intentionally.

Stewardship May Require Risk

Being a good steward does not mean hiding what you’ve been given so nothing bad can happen to it. It means using it well. And using anything well requires some level of risk.

If you have leadership ability, you may risk being criticized. If you have ambition, you may risk failing in public. If you have conviction, you may risk standing alone. That is the cost, but unused talent has a cost too. The cost is regret, stagnation, being less than what you are capable of achieving.

The youngest son chose comfort. The older two chose responsibility. That is the divide.

Final Thought

We are all given a set of talents. Not the same amount Not the same kind. Not under the same circumstances.

That said, do not waste your life resenting what someone else was given. Focus on what is in your hands, use it well, grow it where you can, and refuse to bury your potential in the name of safety.

Don’t waste your talents.

Additional Resources

• Book: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
  A sharp, practical book on resistance, fear, and the work required to bring your gifts into the world.

• Podcast: Modern Wisdom — Steven Pressfield: Turning Pro, Resistance, and Doing the Work
  A strong companion to this theme of refusing to waste what you have been given.

• Stoic Quote of the Month: “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.” -  Marcus Aurelius

  • Stop debating what you could become. Start becoming it.