This document discusses how skills and talents are often the result of practice rather than innate gifts. It notes that a junior high school student who dreamed of being a dancer spent a lot of time practicing dance moves and eventually joined an impressive dance troupe. The document argues that most skills can be learned through practice, even if some people have natural advantages, and that one can achieve skills worth a lot of money by committing to learn and practice, since few people are willing to put in the effort needed.

1. Are You Waiting For One Weird Trick?

2. I used to know this kid in Junior High
School.

3. His dream was to become a
professional dancer.

4. He spent a lot of his time working on
his moves.

5. Later he invited me to one of his
shows. He was in a dance troupe, and
they were pretty impressive.

6. This wasn't a normal kid.

7. Most JHS kids don't know what they
want.

8. Not only did this guy have a clear idea,
but he spent a lot of time practicing.

9. If you saw some guy walking down the
street with massive arms, what would
you think?

10. He's got some kind of lucky genetics,
and he was born with huge arms?

11. How about seeing some guy at a party,
who can juggle sixteen things at once?

12. Would you assume that he's some kind
of latent gift that the rest of us don't?

13. Probably not.

14. You'd probably assume, at least on
some level, that he's spent a lot of
time practicing.

15. And most of the time we see
somebody with a finely honed set of
skills, we just assume they had a lot of
practice.

16. But some of the most important skills,
we don't see them as practice.

17. We, for some reason, see them as
things some people can do, while
others can't.

18. Like talking to strangers with
confidence, or being able to give a
persuasive speech.

19. In reality, anything that somebody else
can do, you can do.

20. Sure, some things are easier for some
people, but so what?

21. Yes, some people are "lucky" in that
the things they are naturally good at
can make them a lot of money.

22. You can still do the same things they
can, it just will take some practice.

23. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

24. Ideally, you'd find something you enjoy
doing, so you'll enjoy learning it.

25. That way you won't mind practicing for
a few years before you get good
enough to make a lot of money doing
it.

26. But most people don't like to hear this.

27. They'd rather take a magic pill or learn
some ancient secret discovered in a
cave in the Himalayas.

28. But consider this.

29. According to the laws of economics,
something is worth a lot of money
precisely BECAUSE so few people can
do it.

30. Which means if you're waiting for "one
weird trick" to make it easy, it's going
to be the same "one weird trick" that
everybody else knows.

31. And if everybody else can do it, it's not
going to be worth much, or be unique
in any way.

32. The good news is that because most
people are too lazy to learn, all you've
got to do is spend some time learning.

33. So long as you are committed, you'll
get there.

34. And when you do, you'll have a set of
skills few people know about, let alone
know how to practice.

35. mindpersuasion.com/kindle/