Activating Your Inner Expert and Genius
You can be an expert simply by knowing something better than someone else.
What comes first? Expertise or being an expert?
That’s tough to answer, isn’t it?
How can you be an expert at a sport you’ve never played competitively?
At what point does one transition from proficiency to expertise?
That’s a great question and one that I don’t truly have an answer for… but I’d love to hear some perspective.
I think about some of history’s great creators like Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Did they become experts after they failed tens of hundreds of times or after they succeeded more than 10 times?
It seems as though it just happened gradually and over time they became so so undeniably great that they just had to be experts and then began to be appearing as one.
Earlie James shares in his book, “The Genius Plan”
To stop being an echo and start being a voice, we must cultivate our God-given unique factors. In the book, Lead like Jesus, Ken Blanchard, and Phil Hodges list three things necessary to cultivating our unique factors:
1. Know Your Purpose: What “business” are you in? Where are you going, and why? What will you and your family be all about? Where is your family going, and why?
2. Know Your Vision: What will your future look like if you are accomplishing your purpose? What do you envision your future looking like?
3. Know Your Values: What will you, your business, or your family stand for? On what principles will you make your ongoing decisions?
What do others ask you?
Maybe people ask you for advice, why?
They must think that you have something of value to share. Whether you believe that is true or not, they believe that it is.
You can be an expert simply by knowing something better than someone else.
People sometimes think I’m an expert writer solely because I’ve written a lot more than them.
Or people sometimes think I’m an expert reader solely because I’ve read a lot more than them.
But I wouldn’t look at myself as an expert when I think about people like Bill Gates, Tai Lopez, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett who I would consider expert readers.
That doesn’t mean that I am not an expert in other situations though. Around most people I could certainly be considered an expert reader.
Around most people I’m sure that you could be considered an expert in many areas also.
Become Who You Are
We were all created to be different and unique.
With that in mind, we have unique capabilities and skills and talents — we should embrace who we are and go all in on strengths.
Would you rather have 10 people who can axe down 10 trees an hour or 3 people who can axe down 50 trees an hour.
I’ll go for the three people every single time — and I’m confident that you would too.
“When I found my why, I found my way. When I found my why, I found my will. When I found my why, I found my wings.” — John Maxwell
Identify who you are.
Become more of who you are.
Align your future with who you were created to be.
Be the best version of yourself in every moment.
“Put your personality into your work. Unless of course you find yourself immensely boring — in which case, chase the money.” — Joe Duncan
“Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.” — Naval Ravikant
“I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.” — Kobe Bryant
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