Talent is the ability that is given to you naturally , skill is what you earn through hours upon hours dedicated to the development and actualization of your natural ability. Talent is a foundation, skill is what you build upon that foundation.
“Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men”
Proverbs 22:29
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10
It is possible to become highly skilled at almost anything you want, but most men do not take advantage of this fact.
Most average men are skilled in watching football for long periods of time. Other men are skilled at chronically criticizing their wives (which for most men is a projecting of a lack of self-esteem and self-respect). Most men are skilled at nothing because they do not take the time to venture outside of the comfort zone and into the land of focused effort, so they remain mediocre for their entire lives. They then wonder why life didn’t turn out the way they wanted – why they are not rich, famous or successful. It is because they did not put any effort into any endeavor in life.
We as men can build skills that are marketable and then accumulate an abundance of wealth, but most men do not do this. They do not take the time to focus their mind or work hard to develop those marketable skills.
Boys go to college and major in an easy subject rather than a profitable one.
They waste their four years of “education” in social clubs, drinking parties and other idle revelries that do not profit (Proverbs 14:23). They graduate from college and reality hits them: they have not developed a single marketable skill in their four years of college. Everything they know could have been learned through self-education on the internet. The fact that MIT posts hundreds of lectures for free online is evidence of this.
These boys are doomed to a job they will hate for the rest of their life unless they acquire profitable skills at some point. Reality sets in and the joy of life leaves them, or they ignore this emptiness by watching football and blaming circumstances and chance for how their life turned out.
If you want to avoid this meaningless life, build skills now, and build skills that make money in the modern marketplace.
No one is going to pay you to make origami or send text messages. Playing beer pong, being able to regurgitate meaningless information on a scantron and brag about your liberal arts degree will not earn you a single red cent.
If you are in college, you have the opportunity of a lifetime to build skills – and not just any skills, but skills that can earn money. And not just skills that earn money, but ones that can allow you to set up your life where you are bringing in money while you are sleeping or away from work. This should be the goal of a man: to never again have to trade your time for cash.
In college, you have more free time than ever in your life unless you lie to yourself and use the popular phrase of the weak: “I don’t have time”.
Learn to write, code, copy write, cook, build or sell items. Do not waste your college years or young adult years indulging in far too much social interaction than is necessary. Build a skill and learn how to sell it.
You do not have to build skills, you can always party it up now and blame everything but yourself for why you are a failure and nothing more than a mindless drone later in life. Marketable skill is the primary separator between the guy flipping burgers from the guy building mansions or packing out stadiums with his music. You have the power within you to be one or the other if you are willing to develop some work ethic and exchange your time for skill, rather than exchange your time for pleasure. Make the masculine choice to start building skills today.
Mantra
To possess Skill is to possess Worth
Application
Acquire some decent habits. You need to be training yourself on some kind of skill every day.
Stop heating garbage meals in the microwave and learn how to cook, people will pay for that skill.
Learn how to build furniture.
Learn languages.
Go learn to build electronics or to code computer programs.
Any skill you work to develop is better than whatever nonsense you are currently wasting your time on.
You do not need to revolutionize your life right now, you just need to build and work on marketable skills every single day. You must be a good steward of your time by using it to develop skills.
Get a journal where you will write down the skills you will create. This can be combined with your habit journal, and together they will give you written, visual feedback on how consistent you are with keeping to your skill building every day.
All you have to do is practice a skill every day, and accumulate enough days of practice to make you a professional at what you do. Once you are a professional, sell your ability to the highest bidder. You have no choice but to be successful, and no excuse for being a failure.
Train yourself.
Conduct yourselves like men.
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