Business Marketing Magazine Summer 2017 January 2016 Creating Clear Businesses | Page 10

Sales Talk
Dave Nilson

Talent vs. Tenacity
Tenacity:
Latin: from teneo, “to hold.”
That quality of bodies
which keeps them from parting; cohesiveness; the effect
of araction; opposed to
brittleness or fragility.
Talent:
Faculty; natural gift or endowment. Eminent abilities;
superior genius; skill.

We

all have the natural tendency to hear a success
story and blame it on
‘luck’. We also have the tendency to be
jealous of others’ natural talents, especially when their talent exceeds our
own. But when did you last take stock
of those people you truly admire, who
are successful in the long term, and
compare their talent to their tenacity?

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An example from my young manhood
in the gymnastics arena:
I remember one young man, a little
younger than myself, who had natural talent coming out of his ears so
to speak. He caught on quickly to the
techniques, he was very comfortable
flipping his body around, and had a lot
of fun. His acceleration through the basic skills was one of the quickest I’ve
seen in my experience. I was jealous! I
I submit that tenacity is worth many wanted to have as much fun as he was
times what talent is worth!
having, and I wanted the EASE with
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