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Give Your Business A Gift Claudette Rowley Copyright 2002
"I challenge you not to get lost in your own growth - purpose of your transformation is to radiate your gifts in service of others."
- Kevin Cashman
We each arrive in this world bearing a set of gifts that is uniquely ours. I invite you to take a look at gifts that don't require wrapping - ones that are innately yours.
How do gifts relate to entrepreneurship?
Entrepreneurship is an act of capitalizing on ways in which we are gifted. At its finest, entrepreneurship asks us to capture that which we do best, harness it and put it out into world in some form or fashion.
I'm convinced that fully acknowledging your gifts - to yourself, first and foremost - will catapult your business and your life into bold new arenas. Here's why: When you don't acknowledge your gift of, for example, building businesses or transforming houses or connecting people, you hold back from full self expression. When you don't acknowledge your gifts, you can't capitalize on your innate human resources. YOU are your business' most valuable resource.
What stops us from taking full advantage of our gifts?
* Judgment. Judgment is number one wet blanket. Just as your gift starts to burn brightly, judgment comes along and throws a heavy blanket over flame. In our world, it's perfectly acceptable to wax at length about our failings, misfortunes and weaknesses. We rarely speak openly about our gifts and accomplishments without qualifying them. "Well, I guess I am an okay painter. But it's just a little hobby, and Betsy is much better."
We are taught not to "brag". How did telling truth about oneself become equivalent of bragging? And because we are so afraid of being "full of ourselves", we don't even admit significance of our gifts to ourselves.
Judgment can also surface in form of rules about your talents. For example, "I am gifted in this way, but not in that way. I should be gifted in that way." "Well, I do have a gift, but it's not good enough." As if some gifts are legitimate and some aren't. Environment can also play a big part in perception of your gift's legitimacy. In some families, being a talented businessperson is honored and being of an artistic bent isn't. In some families, reverse is true.
