HOW GOOD IS POTENTIAL?

Potential means possession of capability to perform a certain task or in general terms to achieve success. Presence of potential in a person is directly linked to the probability of its success but it is not the only factor which leads to success. In fact, there is no guarantee that a person having potential will ever be successful and there are many examples where despite having potential the person is nowhere near success.

So, it is good to have potential but it is of utmost importance to convert the potential into something useful either for oneself or for others. Converting is important because HAVING THE CAPABILITY TO WIN AND WINNING IN ACTUAL ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. What use is the potential if it cannot be converted to something useful.

People possess some skill and talent but is it of any value if not being used, how good is Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi for you on the bench. They became who they are by not sitting on the bench but by playing and utilizing their talent and skill on the pitch. All the potential that they have still remains even if they are on the pitch or on the bench.

In worse cases, if potential is kept unused, it deteriorates rendering the person useless for certain task, very similar to the case of a machine. For example, you buy a machine but don’t use it, gradually if you are not using it, it will get rusted and will become ineffective, doesn’t mean the machine didn’t have potential initially, but the decision of not converting that potential resulted in ineffectiveness.

So, how to convert potential into success? By taking INITIATIVE and using the ideas and skill one possesses. Unless one is taking initiative there is no use of the potential. It is like petrol; we know petrol can run the vehicle but it is not useful unless it is poured into the vehicle to make the engine run.

This is one of the wrong things that HR does as well, while hiring the HR majorly focuses on the skill set the individual possesses which means the potential of that individual, but what if the individual is not able to or not willing to convert the potential for the work. Speaking from personal experience I have come across both type of individuals who either were not able to or not willing to convert their potential into something fruitful.

With that being the reason, I put forth the idea that “Both Aptitude and Attitude are important but the later should always be given the priority”. Because the conversion of potential would come from attitude and not aptitude.

There are two types of people, when given a task to perform. First are those who say “Someone else will do it” and second are those who say “No one else but I will do it”. And that is the difference between the two of them, even if the amount of potential is same in both of them, we know the second one is worth hiring.

Thus, taking initiative is in fact more important than having potential because it triggers the possibility of happening. The POSSIBILITY OF HAPPENING does not arise from potential but from the actions taken, to put it in simple terms

NOTHING MUCH WILL HAPPEN UNTIL NOTHING MUCH IS DONE

You need to USE WHAT YOU HAVE in order to achieve WHAT YOU WANT because achieving or attainment comes after the performance of act.

Another thing that is observable with potential is that it brings along expectations. Potential and expectations always go hand in hand, and if the expected success is not achieved, it breeds frustration. People realize their own potential but wonder why they are not successful. Sometimes people don’t want to use their potential and sometimes they don’t know how to; in either case it ends in frustration only.

So, what about the time when one is unable to convert potential, the solution is still to take initiative and start doing something, it might fail initially but sooner or later one will get on the right track, at least it is better way than those people who have chosen not to take action because one has created the possibility of happening by taking action unlike the other.

This phenomenon works in a cycle such as, POTENTIAL conversion leads to SUCCESS, leading to RAISE IN POTENTIAL, from here if conversion is successful, it breeds further want for potential and more success eventually; but down the line there will come an instance where the conversion will not be fruitful, resulting in frustration because potential was already visible.

At those instances one should remember that not every time he/she will receive success, failure is a part of the process, and one should not stop putting efforts just because once the potential failed to yield. There are numerous examples of this situation but the best one comes from cricket; we know what happened in world cup 2007 after loosing to Bangladesh. The dual nature of countrymen came into observation, a time when the same people who named Sachin as the God of Cricket, didn’t shy away from burning his posters and shaming the entire team at every cross road in the country.

This was nothing but the result of frustration among people of the potential not being converted, the Indian team was considered to be having huge potential because of presence of many match winners in the squad but at that time the potential did not get converted. But would it have been right if the Indian team stopped playing because they failed to convert the potential once? If so, then would India have won the very next world cup after 4 years?

Situations come and go, sometimes repeating themselves but one should always look forward and convert the potential to inflict the best on the outside of what is present in the inside. And it doesn’t matter whether you believe you have the potential or not, initiative is capable enough to trump potential because:

A TALENTED PERSON OFTEN FALLS SHORT TO A WELL-TRAINED PERSON.     

Written By:

Nihar H. Mehta