How I Only Have 1/3 of the Triple Threat but Still Manage to Be Successful- Conclusion Part 3

Time for today's conclusion of "Are You a Triple Threat?"

Am I, Entrepreneur Chick, a triple threat? Nope.

Let's review our list again.

(1) Intelligence

(2) Talent

(3) Cunning

I am reasonably intelligent but no one's beating down my door with a Nobel Prize- that I've noticed. I'm no Stephen Hawking over here. So that fact that I'm not all that smart- and I've done plenty stupid things that I can prove to you I'm not that smart- would certainly shore up my assertion.

How about the time I got stuck in the window in my underwear (I didn't want to rip my purdy dress) because my car wouldn't start and my key broke off in the lock and I burst an internal organ and had to have two blood transfusions?

Or the time I ate the entire bar of Exlax because I thought that's what you
were supposed to do- and then read the directions?

Here's a good one- when I was fishing out in the woods and had to go to the bathroom. I improvised and wiped with a leaf. Poison oak.

As far as me being just so intelligent; we can take that off the board.

Am I talented? Yes. If you were to seek one of my services out- something that I am talented at doing- it would cost you $100.00 an hour. I could simply stand in a room with you and you'd have to pay me $100.00 an hour. And it's perfectly legal. However, where my talent lies in this particular vein- is not a good model for business success. Why?

Because all I can make is what I can teach.

So I have zero leverage. Everything rests on me and me alone. That is a very, very, poor formula for the success that I want to achieve. Yet I will say it's how I parlayed that talent into greater opportunities. And I have certainly raised capital for my other ventures because I can command a fairly high pay scale, but it's wholly undesirable in the long run.

I have another talent that I can command $200.00 an hour. But that requires certain materials I'd need to execute the job. I'm very, very good at this one, by the way. But, in my mind, the same dilemma exists. All I can earn is what I can do myself. Ewww. Not good. Yet, I have trained other people to do what I once did, and I can send them out- two, three, four, five, six even 20 at a time! Now how much am I making? See the difference?

So, my own personal talent only goes so far. Not far enough by a long shot.

Here's the deal. I'm not very smart and my talent is only worth so much- that's two out of the three I don't got. Yeah? (That's slang on purpose.)

What's left?
Cunning.
Let's work with a few definitives now so we can nail down what cunning is and what's it's not.
As I have said in a earlier post, cunning is NOT the illicit exploitation of others. If you're going to operate a business by exploiting others, well, guess what? Someone way bigger than you is going to exploit you. It's a Biblical principle.

As a noun, we can say "cunning" is a skill employed in a shrewd or sly manner.
As an adjective, we can say "cunning" is showing or made with ingenuity.

Bingo.
I'm ingenious. I'm creative. I can take an idea and pitch it different than what's been going on thus far. I can "see' how to market circles around the competition.

This is a funny example. When I used to teach ballroom and hip-hop (adults only) 7 years ago, I was an independent instructor in an amazing studio located in Dallas. The people that owned this studio also owned Michael's and other really big entities. The deal was, the wife, who I heard is no longer married to the same man now that she was then- she sunk well over a million dollars into this studio. I mean it was sharp.

At the studio, another couple there, from Russia, very well known, took all kinds of trophies and awards, you name it- taught along side of me. They would say-

"I don understand eeeet. Shee can not even do exact proper da cha-cha-cha and yet, shee have-a da more student dan vee do."

Oh, they hated me! You better believe they could dance circles around me- Russian people are not playing with their ballroom now.

BUT, I knew how to market myself like gangbusters.
And my prices were even higher than theirs!

Cunning. Intuitive.
Intuitive- "knowing or perceiving, by intuition capable of knowing without deduction or reasoning."

I have a good friend, Cindy. Bill and Cindy. We get together a lot and have a lovely dinner, as Bill is an extraordinary chef, and after we eat, we often play games.

Bill can become so dumbfounded. "How could you possibly guess that answer right when all Cindy drew was a line and a dot?!"

It's completely obvious to me.

You can call me up and say, "Hey, I just got a new car."
"Is it white with blue interior?"
"How'd you know that?"
"I dunno."

At a cocktail party three weeks ago, I shared with a man that I already knew the scoop about him because I was speaking to his wife earlier.
"I know you live in Corinth. I know you have three children. I know you work with Mike..."
"Did she tell you what side of the bed I sleep on too?"
"The left."
"How'd you know that?!"

Listen, okay- I had a 50% chance of getting it right. But I said it with such conviction and authority; which is what sold it.

Therefore, don't worry if you are not all things to all people. You don't need to be.
You don't have to be a "triple threat" to get where you want to go.
Build a great business model, one that you can replicate over and over and over. Utilize what you've got- and what don't have- find the people who do.
Dig?