Layering leverage on top of your talent

It’s true that we contain multitudes.

It’s true that we have special gifts.

And it’s true that we are far more powerful than we have been led to believe.

But the economy of human potential, talent is a finite resource. It’s a closed circle. Merely the starting point for our contribution to this world.

Success comes from the leverage we apply to our talent.

Think of it like the exponent in a math equation. Leverage represents the power to which a base expression is to be raised, shown as a superscript to the right of the number. Ten by itself is just ten. But ten raised to the fifth power is a million.

That’s leverage. It’s compound interest. And when it comes to your talent, the goal is to get that exponent as high as possible. To continue raising your base to the power of other things.

In my experience, there are numerous exponents to give your talent more leverage. They include, but are certainly not limited to, faith, ambition, support, positioning, intuition and will.

First, there’s faith. Being an exceptional believer in your own capabilities. This faith buoys you in the face of rejection, failure and setbacks where other people would normally quit.

Second is ambition. Amplifying your limited natural aptitudes with energy and passion. This ambition multiplies your influence beyond what you could achieve on raw talent alone.

Next comes support. Having people whose continuous encouragement expands your expectations of yourself. This support allows you to sustain your creative flame over the significantly long period of time that success requires.

The fourth exponent is positioning. Strategically playing a different game than the rest of the pack, one where you write the rules, there’s no competition and the odds of winning are high. This positioning uniquely frames your work and separates you from the imitators.

Fifth is intuition. Accumulating your distinctive experience set that afford you hidden knowledge about the world. This intuition can bypasses your normal process of reason to help you navigate uncertainty with your best interests at heart.

The final exponent in the list is perseverance. Mobilizing the will to drag your tired ass out of bed and play again tomorrow, even if the world kicks you in the face with a golf shoe. This will gives you freedom to interpret circumstances with a narrative that serves you, creating meaning regardless of outcome.

To review, faith, ambition, support, positioning, intuition and will are your exponents.

If you start with your base talent and raise it to the power of any or all of them, there’s no telling what kind of contribution you can make on the world.

But talent alone, as an independent element, won’t be enough to propel you to great heights.

What leverage can you layer on top of your talent?