Values Best Practices

Why Not You?
Discovering our Own Unique Gift
Andy Andrews

There is a time in most people’s lives when they stagnate or “bounce around on the bottom.” It’s a low point, a bad financial place, a bad emotional place, or that netherworld of just plain living beneath your potential. Within all of us there is a special talent placed in us by God. When He passed out those talents, He let some people swim or run fast. Others were given talent to jump high or sing well. I think I got a really obscure talent. He said to me, “You get to notice stuff!” That’s my talent, but I’m happy with it.

Before we really realize what our special talent is, we bounce around on the bottom until we gain some personal insight. For me, I began asking, “Is life just a lottery ticket, or are there choices I can make to direct my future?” I decided to start looking for answers in the lives of people who’d done great things. These men and women were not all famous, but they all did great things. They did not remain stagnated, confused, bouncing around on the bottom. I started seeing some patterns in their lives, and those patterns made me realize – I needed to make better choices.

That was the beginning. I started going a different direction. I found a focus. I began using the gift of humor that I had been blessed with. One thing led to another, and when I began appearing with people like Kenny Rogers, Cher, and Joan Rivers, I started adding some of those stories and patterns of greatness, or “life principles” to the humorous ones, calling them “The Seven Decisions.” The audiences liked it, and things kept growing from there. Those decisions or principles became the foundation for my book, The Traveler’s Gift.

I “noticed” things about great people in history and I’ve shared them. When you pay attention, you might see all the same things others see, but they might come away with nothing in particular. A “noticer” comes away WITH something. For instance, I’ve “noticed” that life always means you are going into a crisis, experiencing a crisis, or coming out of a crisis. That’s just life. We hear a lot of whining, “Why me?” Well, why not me?

Do you know the most important thing I’ve noticed among great people? The greatest common denominator of people who’ve done great things is that the level of greatness a person achieves is always in proportion to the hardships they have faced. The greater the trials and hardships, the greater a person became. Why not me? Why not you? Shouldn’t we all have the chance to be great? Shouldn’t we all get the chance to show we CAN overcome obstacles and failures? When we are bouncing around on the bottom, it’s just a chance to get the momentum to reach the stars. Greatness is not a lottery ticket at all. It’s more like a free bus ticket, and only a few choose to get on the bus. Ok…you are holding the ticket. Are you getting on?