Talent is Never Enough chapter 6 by John Maxwell

This will be the last overview for Talent is Never Enough. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of this book for every parent and teacher in the preparation of our children’s work ethic, character development, and career goals. We have gone through chapter six and the best I have reserved for you to read for yourself. I hope you have enjoyed the review…now for chapter six.

If you want to sum up what lifts most successful individuals above the crowd, you could do it with four little words: a little bit more. Successful people pay their dues and do all that is expected of them—plus a little bit more.

Performance Can Always Be Improved

“A good leader understands that anything that has been done in a particular way for a given amount of time is being done wrong. Every single performance can be improved.”

Dale Carnegie advised, “Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do little things well, the big ones tend to take care of themselves.”

As I was pondering the truths in Maxwell’s book, Talent is Never Enough, I began thinking about his particular insight on how small gains make big differences. He gives the illustration how an Olympic gold medal is often hundredths of a second better than second place. The Apostle Peter encourages the same in his second letter when he said, “Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge…” When we make moral decisions to remain pure of heart for example, or spend a little extra time doing a job well, those little “additions” bring an accumulated positive effect upon our lives and the lives of those we serve. Peter’s words carry more meaning that meets the eye; the word “diligence” means “to make a decision to go a different direction;” the word “add,” means “add at your own expense.” Developing discipline always beings with struggle. It is a matter not of conditions but of choice, as Peter so skillfully conveys. Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.”

Though I would agree with Aristotle, I would caution that excellence is not synonymous with character.

A person of excellence without character is a proud person who serves himself more than others. A person of excellence who has his character forged, is a person who recognizes that his skills are gifts from a Great Giver, to be used for the benefit of others and his own enjoyment. John Piper so aptly changed the wording in the Westminster confession that gives this sense: “The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.” When one understands that God wants us to enjoy Him with the skills that He has so graciously given, then a whole new approach to one’s work will begin.

Andrew Carnegie also said, “There is no use whatever trying to help people who do not help themselves. You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself.”

Joe Theismann said of the two super bowl rings, the winners and the losers that the difference “lies in applying oneself and not accepting anything but the best.”

Pepperdine University sociology professor Jon Johnston makes a distinction between excellence and mere success: “Success bases our worth on a comparison with others. Excellence gauges our value by measuring us against our own potential. Success grants rewards to the few but is the dream of the multitudes. Excellence is available to all living beings but is accepted by the ….few. Success focuses its attention on the external—becoming the tastemaker for the insatiable appetites of the …consumer. Excellence beams its spotlight on the internal spirit…Excellence cultivates principles and consistency.”

Bill Hybels said, “Most people feel best about themselves when they have given their very best.”

Charles Kendall Adams, president of Cornell University and later University of Wisconsin observed, “No one ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount of excellence of what is over and above the required that determines greatness.”

Successful people practice harder and practice longer than unsuccessful people. Success expert Peter Lowe said, “The most common trait I have found in all successful people is that they have conquered the temptation to give up.”

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