Superpowers, Stretching and Saying No.

If You Can Do It, Should You?

Let’s say you have a set of skills, abilities, talents, or superpowers. Call them what you will.

Most workplaces will want you to use one or two of them to do your job, but rarely all of them. This means many of us have surplus ability lying dormant. Unexercised. Quietly gathering dust in the internal cupboard.

What should you do with it?

It is an important question.

You may be a plumber who can paint, a doctor who can play violin, or an accountant who can write poetry. You can probably think of a few more.

Human potential is valuable and should not be wasted. So, is it better to focus on one skill and leave the rest to slumber, or is the best use of human potential achieved by developing and exercising all the different facets of a person’s abilities?

I think most of us feel more comfortable with the second option. If you prefer anecdote, consider this: Einstein played violin.

That said, why do so many business “gurus” claim that a successful business must specialise in one thing only?

So-called “core business” thinking has its place, but taken too far, it becomes deeply limiting. It may work for machines, or for companies that want to turn people into neatly labelled cogs, but it is not a sustainable way to think about human beings.

People are not single-purpose instruments.

So I would suggest that in life, business, and work, you may find it most rewarding to use all your superpowers as much as possible. Naturally, some traditional workplaces will have a problem with this. If so, you may need to fix that by leaving. See my other blog on that subject.

If You Can’t Do It, Should You Try?

Yes.

How else can you grow?

Naturally, this approach should be tempered with self-awareness. You need to understand what you and your business can do, and, more importantly, what you actually want to do. Not every opportunity deserves a yes.

But when the only thing holding you back is the size, strangeness, or unfamiliar shape of the challenge, then perhaps your war cry should be: challenge accepted.

Recently, an opportunity presented itself to me to support a large network client. It was a big job and would certainly have been a good opportunity for growth. However, the owner of the network was engaged in a pursuit I found ethically questionable, so it was an easy decision to say, “No thank you.”

So yes, if a project gives you a bad feeling, do not do it.

But if your reservations are only because the job seems large, difficult, or left of field, why not explore how you could do it?

Now that you are feeling a little more courageous, what do you do if you have taken on something you previously thought was beyond your ability?

Break it down into small, manageable steps.

Have a plan for each step. If you get stuck in the planning or execution stage, ask around for help. If you do not get the help you need, or you do not like the help you are finding, ask more people. Gather data. Look for patterns. Make decisions.

Then proceed.

Above all else, persevere.

It will nearly always be worth it. If not for the task at hand, then definitely for the next time you do it. Because once you have added that skill to your repertoire, it is yours.

And then you can go out and use it again, for yourself and for others.