Daily Inspiration 1-12-19

"At college age, 

you can tell who is best 

at taking tests and going to school, 

but you can't tell who the best people are.

That worries the hell out of me."

-- Barnaby C Keeney

People have devised all sorts of tests, such as I.Q. tests, personality tests and you name it to find out if someone is qualified or is to be a fit in a certain place. No matter what, they are limited in what they can tell us and yet we tend to give them far more value than they deserve. That reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Albert Einstein: "Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."

I remember becoming a brand-new sales manager at a car dealership at age 25 in 1975 and sometime during the next year, the general manager bought into a personality testing program to help determine the right candidates for positions in the store. So, I took the test to test the test. It came back that I was not recommended for the job of sales manager.

Have you ever known when you felt like you had a calling to do something and then did it? That was me in the sales manager position. I felt like I had a calling to it and I think I was pretty good at it, in spite of the personality test results. After that episode and a couple more for good measure, the test went bye-bye.
Over the next 25 years of doing that job, I've run across other tests and none of them were really very helpful. Part of the problem is that a large percentage of people seem to tense up on taking tests and it skews the results to say the least in many and can make it worthless in others. Frankly, I think throwing a wet noodle against a wall and seeing if it sticks is just about as accurate; albeit, not as interesting.

The best judge that I've found so far is if people like what they are doing. If they enjoy the work, they will want to learn more about it and improve their skills at doing it and then they will enjoy it much more. Another judge is how they seem to fit in how they communicate, handle themselves and such. Another is how they respond to encouragement and guidance. Then again, some are seriously good at the interview and not so good at the position. All in all, I believe as my mentor, Jim Rohn, has said: "the reason for training is to find out who you have."

Although tests may tell me some things of interest, I don’t need tests to tell me what I can see with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, and feel with my own feelings. And this I know to be true: Feeling good about yourself is the most important thing you can choose to do today and every single day of your life. It doesn't matter who says otherwise. You deserve it, so just do it.


It's Okay To Listen And Learn, But It Is Best To Rule Yourself From Within. As Within, So Without.

Spread some joy today--by being true to yourself.