John C. Maxwell in his book talent is never enough said and I quote

"People are like iceberg s, there is more to them than meets the eye"

When you see or look at an iceberg, you can't see it all. Only about 20% or less is visible while the rest is below the surface.

One of the things sailors dreaded the most is hitting an iceberg while sailing across an ocean or a sea. Why? It's because they do understand that what they are seeing or what their ship or vessel hit isn't what they see but what is beneath it which they can't see that they are more afraid of.

One may wonder what's with the iceberg thing? Well I am not a motivational speaker neither am I a preacher but this article is only to bring someone back on track and to share the little knowledge gained from top people which I believe is going to help.

I do believe (and I believe you do also) that every human born on Earth is destined to be great though not all will be great. Everyone given birth to are endowed with a particular or special gift (Talent) by their creator.

Now like an iceberg, the 20% visible is this gift given to Man by the creator, and what is the remaining 80% this are the values that sustain the 20% that is visible to all.

A popular Chinese actor said and I quote;

"I am less afraid of a man who knows a thousand kick than he who knows a single kick"

The point is clear here. The actor understood that knowing a thousand kick isn't the main deal, but what is behind or below those kicks. Knowing those thousand kicks a indeed a great deal of talent but can those shallow thousand kicks be more effective than the single kick than is deep? Of course not.

Now we know that the top of an iceberg has been described as our talent, our area of strength but what is now the core values that makes up the rest of our iceberg that makes our talent effective?

John Maxwell said

"One of the paradox of life is that things that initially makes one successful rarely keeps one successful"

I completely agree with John on this. What you did to become successful in life isn't what will keep you in that success but the core values that are beneath that makes up the success people are seeing.

If you ask a dozen people about what makes our talent or gift have impact, you probably will have a dozen answers but here is what I have.

1. Self-discipline

Greek philosopher Plato said

"The first and best victory is to conquer self"

Self-discipline is doing what you ought to to do even when you don't want to do it. Self-discipline is one of the values that are beneath that people can't see that fine-tune one talent that people see and keep one in success. Your talent can bring you success but self-discipline will keep you in it.

Henry Parry said

"What we do on great occasion s will probably depend on what we already are; and we we are will be the results of previous years of self-discipline"

Other values that makes up that are beneath, that strengthen our talent are Integrity, Focus, Knowing who we are and lots more.

Your contributions can also be shared below via the comments section. Let's learn together.