We have all met incompetent professionals who had no reason to be anything else that spectacular. Although the necessary training for the job, the good studies, the perfect grades and tons of experience, all exist in abundance, they seem unable to produce anything of value or deliver results.
Law graduates who become lousy lawyers, doctors who spent half their life studying and yet cannot excel as doctors, politicians who graduate from elite schools and do not know what to say and when… Artists who practice daily under master mentors, athletes who train with the best coaches, and profound intellectuals who possess the knowledge of a huge library, often find themselves unable to put all their assets to good use.
One could claim that such misfortune is due to lack of ‘talent’. And although talent for a specific job is not something everybody has or can acquire, still this is not the reason expert people fail. As I have explained in detail in my first book, the world is full of gifted individuals. To recall the words of my one-time mentor M. Pressler, ‘talent is necessary but not sufficient’. What is it then that the majority of well-prepared professionals lack? The answer is TRAINING.
True training cannot be a general course of study aiming to educate EVERYONE undertaking it, in the same manner. True training can ONLY be custom-made to assist one’s further development and enhance those aspects of one’s arsenal who seem to be the weakest at the moment. Therefore, a College or University program, a seminar in an Academy or participation in a workshop can be beneficial only if it is considered the first rudimentary step upon which one ought to build further. And the best constructions, the most solid buildings as well as architectural marvels, are always tailored-made and UNIQUE.
The solution then, is not to train FOR the job/profession but to train YOURSELF as the human being who will inevitably be able to LIVE successfully in that profession. Only then one can fully enjoy oneself within any given workspace and only then can one have a beneficial impact on the lives and work of others.