Talent. That little word that makes us stand out, dream big, work hard, and create magic.
That inner drive that makes you dig deep into your work with only the glow in your heart lighting up your path and guiding your mind and hands to action.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an entrepreneur, or a chef, or an artist, or a writer, or a photographer, or a coach. And it doesn’t matter whether your talent is in your thoughts, or your voice, or your feet, or your hands. If you’ve got that itch inside that moves you to create something great, something that the world has never seen before… you’ve experienced the high of getting creative with your talent.
But do you know why we call an individual’s remarkable ability “talent”?
It’s a fun little story.
And it will shed new light on your valuation of your own talent.
The word “talent” comes to us from the ancient Greeks. (Yup, it’s that old!) In ancient Greece, “talent” was the highest denomination of money. A talent wasn’t a useless penny or a dime, it was a sum so great you’d need 58 pounds of silver to replace it today. 58 pounds of silver! In just one coin! When the Romans took power over from the Greeks, they used the word “talent” to signify a great sum of money, or “wealth” in general. And from that metaphorical use, the word came to mean also a wealth of natural ability, a gift from the gods. An inner “talent”. In other words?
Talent means wealth.
When you offer the world marvel and amazement and sensation, when you share the inner wealth that the creative gods have bestowed upon you, the world rewards the sharing of that gift with offerings of its own, material wealth.
There is nothing more valuable than infusing wonderment and inspiration and brilliance into the world. Nothing that the world loves more than watching the unimaginable take place, the impossible happen, and the fantastic come to life.
So don’t hoard your talent.
Your talent, regardless of the expression it finds, is a wealth of the spirit. A wealth of an ability that the rest of us have but in minuscule degrees. A wealth that you have been consigned to bring to the world. So no matter what they (the critics, the naysayers, the non-believers) say, don’t let them stifle your talent and diminish the enjoyment you bring to the world. Don’t let them steal the wealth that has been entrusted to you.
Sure, following your talent isn’t always easy, or “practical.” But if talent gives up and vanishes under the constrains of the practical world? So will the practical world wither and die for lack of creativity and imagination. For lack of the wonderment that gives it hope and aspiration. And for lack of spiritual and emotional wealth.
If there is one thing all of us creative types must do, it is to fight for our talents.To bring our talents to life through our projects and our dreams and our off-beat creations. If we must do something, it is to delight the world through sharing an inner wealth so rich and imaginative as it has never seen before, and as it cannot attain without our talent.
Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.”
-Leo Buscaglia
Let your inner treasure shine forth and allow the world to exchange its tangible wealth for a little piece of your wondrous talent.
How do you enrich the world? Share in the comments and spread the wealth!
Trackbacks/Pingbacks