“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”
– Samuel Clemens
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(Run time – 2:17)
Yesterday, I pondered the consequences of what would happen if I lost my voice, which for the longest time might have been the worst thing that could have happened to me other than dying. But what does it mean to have a voice, and not use it? Certainly the world would become a noisier place. And it has.
On the whole, we live in the greatest Age of Freedom with regards to free expression. We still have a long way to go, but never have more people been free to share ideas without repercussions. More importantly, never have more people had access to the tools of amplification. We have access to say, to see, to find, and to disagree. The Marketplace of Ideas has never had so many vendors and consumers. And for many of us, the stakes have been raised – because there is a greater need to know how to be heard above the noise.
Hidden Gifts
If you looked at everything I did growing up, it all pointed to a career as a broadcast journalist. When I went into the business, not a single person was surprised. I had a knack for storytelling, and it came through on the air. Many of my coworkers just assumed that I would never go anywhere else, that I would die with a microphone in my hand, having seen and done just about anything you could imagine in the news business. I had a perspective – a voice – and I was being paid to do something that came very easy for me. I just didn’t know yet why it was easy.
I was a victim of lowered self-value. I thought all along that my voice was my secret weapon. It wasn’t. I discovered – over time – that my knack was in helping other people find their voices. Helping them express their thoughts in a way they wouldn’t have on their own. Helping them tell stories they didn’t know they owned. In essence, I was using my gift all along without consciously acknowledging it.
Looking back – Looking in
I’m thankful that I never lost my voice – neither literally, nor in the sense it was the single tool I had leaned on too long. So here we have complementary questions that are both worth pursuing:
- Which of your talents are you leaning on too much?
- Which of your talents are you not acknowledging or using to their potential?
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a communicator or a client – answer those questions, and you’ll be well on your way to wherever you want to go.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, philosophy, introspection, self-help, self-analysis[/tags]
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Ike – we are thankful that you did not lose your voice as well!
This is the best part, and the most rewarding.
“…I thought all along that my voice was my secret weapon. It wasn’t. I discovered – over time – that my knack was in helping other people find their voices. Helping them express their thoughts in a way they wouldn’t have on their own. Helping them tell stories they didn’t know they owned. In essence, I was using my gift all along without consciously acknowledging it.”