Why Consistent People Often Beat More Talented People

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to Why Consistent People Often Beat More Talented People, or Why Consistency Beats Talent.

We all have talents in different areas of our lives. Some people are more talented in one thing, some people more talented in another, and also there's a level in a lot of things where you can improve your talent through practice, study, things like that.

But in some areas, there's a ceiling. Each of us has certain areas where there's a ceiling to the talent that we have and we can't improve that.

So if we focus so much on talent, if you see someone else and think, oh, they're so much better at this than me, and I've studied and I've worked at it and I'm never going to be as good as them at this.

First of all, a lot of times I will talk or teach or help people focus on being realistic. Now, it's good to realistically evaluate yourself.

It can be good to compare yourself to others sometimes, but you've got to be very careful about comparing yourself to others. It is good to be realistic, but you can't let that stop you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish.

And one way to accomplish more than someone more talented than you in an area is to be more consistent than them.

I think, you know, I've done a lot of speaking and teaching, presenting over the years, and I'm at the age I understand I am what I am. At this point, I am what I am. Some people relate to me very well.

The way I talk doesn't bother them. The way I look doesn't bother them. Some people are even more comfortable working with me or listening to me than they are other people that have a different talent level for speaking or presenting.

But there's also some people that are much more drawn to what I would call a more energetic speaker. I'm not what you'd call a screamer. I'm not ranting and raving.

I'm not focused on high energy everything, and that's fine. So, some people would like one level, other people another. You know, some people don't have a problem with me, and some people do.

The nice thing is there's lots of people, and you can find the people that you resonate with, right?

My audience is people that resonate with me in some way. Either they're comfortable with the way I talk and deliver information, or I provide valuable enough information that they get over whatever it is that they don't particularly like or don't think is great about me. There's plenty of people in those groups.

So, I know people that are better speakers than me and better presenters than me, but I also know plenty of speakers and presenters that aren't as good as me.

And I learned a long time ago that I couldn't let these people that had better skills than me make me not do what I need to do and what I want to do.

Now, the proof is in the pudding in that once I figured out that I was able to help a lot of people, and I've seen the results, and, you know, I'm pretty much entrepreneurial-minded.

Years and years ago, once I started getting paid to help people and getting paid to speak, that was all I needed to understand that I don't have to be like this person or this person.

What I have is valuable enough that somebody will pay for it, so that was good enough for me.

Ever since that point, I never let seeing someone that was a great speaker, very eloquent, with perfect language and perfect energy and all that, stop me from doing what I want to do.

But that ties back into what we're talking about here: why consistent people often beat more talented people.

I consistently have looked for opportunities. I've consistently spoken where I could speak.

I've consistently consulted with businesses and people looking for more success. I've consistently showed up. And sometimes they don't want me.

But enough people do that consistently showing up has proven to me that consistency works for me.

Now, you might not be a speaker. You might have no desire to be in front of people presenting and speaking or teaching, and that's fine.

That's not what's important. The important thing here is that you can use what I'm talking about to help you accomplish whatever you want to accomplish.

And I think the number one message I want you to get today is don't let someone else's appearance of a level of talent keep you from doing what you want to do.

Let the market be the proof. The market's the proof.

And when I say the market, maybe you're not marketing to people. Maybe it's not the same thing I was talking about where I said once I figured out people would pay me for what I do, that was the market speaking to me. That's all I needed. There is a market.

Maybe your market, though, is something else. Maybe you're not selling whatever it is you're doing. Maybe you're trying to get healthier.

Maybe you're trying to lose weight. Let's say you're trying to lose 20 pounds. The market is the scale.

So whatever you're doing, and the scale, I mean you weigh yourself. Let's say you weigh 200 pounds and you want to weigh 180. So you develop a plan, right? You put a system in place.

You develop a system, an eating and exercise system, and you put it in place. Then the scale is your market.

If you do whatever your system or plan or workflow is for two weeks and you still weigh 200 pounds, then that's your market. The market's saying this is not working.

Now you make a change. You do it for two more weeks and now you're down to 196. That's four pounds down. Then that's your market giving you feedback.

So here's the question: What can you do consistently that someone more talented might only do occasionally?

Now, if you're super talented in something, you really usually don't have to work as hard as most people to accomplish what you want to do. If you're super talented, you usually don't have to work as hard.

The people that are extremely successful are usually the ones that are super talented in something that they do, and they work really hard at it and they're very consistent.

Look at professional athletes. What's the difference between the very top-level athletes and then the next level down?

Sometimes there is a talent gap, but sometimes the second level down has as much talent as the top level, but they don't work as hard because they never had to work as hard in order to accomplish most of what they wanted.

And part of what I mean when I'm saying working hard is consistently doing something.

Consistently practicing. Consistently showing up and doing.

So talent can create an advantage, but consistency determines how often that advantage gets used.

And the other thing is, you know, at the beginning I talked about a lot of times talent we can improve a little bit. We can study. We can practice.

The more consistently we practice what we're trying to improve on, or we consistently practice for our talent, the more experience we get and the better we're going to get.

So the more consistent you are, it starts compounding.

For example, the first time I taught or the first time I spoke was not very good. I did it again. A little better.

So I've been presenting, teaching, consulting for decades now, and I'm much better than I used to be.

I'm a lot more comfortable. Things are easier, and that took a lot of practice.

Obviously, I'm never going to be the best speaker in the world, but I've got to a place where I'm comfortable, and I'm comfortable enough that I can help people learn.

I can help people improve. I can help businesses. I can help you create systems and reach your goals.

Consistency creates more opportunities for feedback and correction.

Often I talk about evaluate and adjust. So you need to take action, then you evaluate your results so you can make adjustments.

So you're trying to improve your talent. The more consistently you work on that, whatever your talent is, whatever you're trying to get better at, the more consistently you do it, the more often you get feedback and the more often you can make adjustments.

Build a minimum version of the important actions for difficult days.

And what that means is you design these consistent actions you can take.

And sometimes whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, it can be complicated, right?

So what you need to do, if there's any way possible to do it, is take whatever a complicated thing is that you're consistently showing up and doing and try to make it less complicated for when you have a busy day or you have a day that goes haywire.

So you can still consistently show up and do something, even if it's not the complete thing that you wanted to do.

Use systems, triggers, and routines so showing up does not depend on your mood.

Create a system, create a trigger, create routines or workflows that make you automatically show up and make this consistent.

Because we all have down days and we all have days where we just don't want to do whatever it is.

What I'm talking about, though, is consistently showing up can help you beat more talented people.

But if you don't consistently show up, then you're not going to beat the more talented people.

Long-term results often favor the person who shows up or keeps returning to the work over the person that has more talent.

There are many people in the world that have squandered their talents, that have had more talent than a lot of other people and still not found the success they wanted because they don't work as hard, because their talent has always carried them through.

Don't let that happen to you. Make sure you consistently show up, and that's why consistency can beat talent.

So don't worry if you're not as talented as someone else.

Work on consistently showing up and you'll find that you can compete with people that are more talented than you.

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We'll see you next time.

What's Next?

·        Choose one skill or goal where comparison has been discouraging you.

·        Ask what you can do consistently that someone more talented might only do occasionally.

·        Define a minimum version of the important action for busy or difficult days.

·        Use a system, trigger, or routine that makes showing up easier.

·        Collect feedback from the real result, then evaluate and adjust.

·        Keep returning to the work long enough for practice and feedback to compound.

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