"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
William Shakespeare

You're a unique individual, with unique talents, gifts, and desires. No one else is exactly like you. If you find your unique gifts, and focus your energy in that direction, it's the recipe for your success.

Look at the top performers in any category: athletics, music, business, etc. They are all at the top of their game because they focus their energy on their giftings. They hire out everything else around them and do what they do best. They practice. They perform. They master the skills they were born with. None of them is an exact copy of someone else.

There is only one problem. This principle is in conflict with another principle: modeling success. The quickest way to produce business success is to find those who have already mastered the subject and model them.

For example, I don't know if I've ever truely had a unique business idea. Everything I've done has been modeled after something else that worked before it. If I want to write a sales letter, I look through sales letters that have worked in the past in all different fields. Most of my marketing strategies have been developed by seeing a "model" work in another business field.

Reinventing the wheel is a long, slow process...and it's a waste of time in business. Find out what has already worked and use it as a model of success for your business.

Then modify it for your own unique slant and gifting. While I've modeled all my marketing strategies after something that has worked before, I've almost always tested and found ways to make it produce better for me. That's what my business has always been about.

Find a proven model of success.
Copy it for the basic system.
Test and modify to improve on it for my own business.

Some of those modifications will always occur because I'm unique. I'm different in some way from the person I'm modeling the strategy after. For example, they may be great at one area while I'm unique in a different way.

My primary gift is the ability to see the big picture, and how all the pieces fit together in the whole. I take complicated subjects and make them simple. I've always had a little trouble describing it until one of my coaching clients sent me an email that basically spelled it all out for me...

"But it's this UNBELIEVABLE way you bring clarity and truth out of a mess. Like you can clean off the dirt of the diamond.. wash away the filth...and bring truth to things in such a SIMPLE WAY."

I think that defines what I do better than anything else.

I've mentioned this book before, but it bears repeating. "Unique Ability: Creating the Life You Want" by Catherine Nomura and Julia Waller is an incredible book to help you realize the importance of finding your own gifts...and then applying them every day in your business and life.

One of the exercises they tell you to do is to send an email to eight or ten people who know you well. They can be friends, classmates, business associates, partners, etc. They simply have to be people who've seen you demonstrate your normal, natural abilities over time.

In the book, they give you the exact email to send out. The key question in the email is, "What do you see as my unique ability. My unique ability includes my talents and abilities, characteristics that describe me, what I'm good at, how I do things, and what you count on me for?"

You'll find that those around you every day will often spot your gifts before you do, because whatever you're excellent out just comes naturally for you. You don't even notice how well you do it because it's simple...and it's often fun to you. Others see it, because it looks like it's "sweatless victory" to you even if you actually work hard on it.

One of the wonderful things about coaching other business owners is I get to see their unique skills in action.

I've consulted a business owner who promoted their business primarily through public speaking. I was hired to come review him during one of their seminars. Even though I told him he was a much better speaker than I, he still hired me to do this. He knew I could spot holes in their marketing and put the entire package together better even though he was a worldclass speaker.

I've consulted with clients who are much better with Google Adwords than me. While I use Adwords quite profitably, I focus more on content methods of driving traffic and joint ventures. I've consulted with clients who do million dollar businesses primarily through PPC advertising. What were they looking for? Focus...and my ability to help them put all the pieces together.

I'm so thankful for my uniqueness. It's allowed me to create million dollar information businesses, coach clients who are experts in their field, travel the world, and build a business that fits me.

"A man's gift makes room for him And brings him before great men."
Proverbs 18:16

What is your gift...and how will you apply it to build a profitable business that you love?