Trading your talent by truth.
Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. [17] And likewise he who had received two gained two more also.
You have been given ‘talents’ just as I also received talents. Everyone possesses at least a talent.
Without ‘talents’ we can’t make any impact in this world, and we cannot realize destiny. We are required to trade our talents, bring about concrete contributions within our sphere of influence, and contribute to advancement in society.
What differentiates how far you have gone from my journey so far is how well you have ‘traded’ your talent.
Those who trade their talents profitably gain mileage in life ahead of those who are unable to do so.
As the parable of the talents reveals, some of us will trade our talents profitably, to the delight of our masters or bosses. Others will struggle to do the same, to the displeasure of our bosses.
The difference in the ‘profit’ each person produces from trading her talent is the truth underlying our approach.
You won’t produce a result better than the truth that underlies your trading approach.
The secret to trading your talent.
I love to operate by the parable of Jesus.
They provide profound insights for those who care to seek them. Great pearls you will unveil that will empower you in strategic ways in the race of life. [Check out my EQUIP Bootcamp to undertake your adventure into His rich ‘bank’ of parables.]
The parable of the talents provides relevant insights to access the secrets to trading your talent.
We are told of a Master who distributed ‘talents’ to three servants. He gave them 5, 2 and 2 talent(s) respectively. The amount given to each was in line with ascertained capacity. Each one had a track record with the boss.
The ‘charge’ to them was to ‘do business’ with the talents while the Master was away.
You can interpret this charge to equally mean that each servant was required to trade with the talents for profit. They were required to bring forward their ‘contributions’ whenever the Master returned.
For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. [15] And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey.
Without trading the talent, no one could return a ‘profit.
Two of the servants proved to be more capable than the third. They were given more talents than the third.
While they each returned 100% on their talents, the third servant returned 0%.
They traded their talents while the third servant refused to trade his talent. The third servant had a different idea about what to do
From this parable, we learn the following secrets about trading talents:
Talents are distributed to obtain a diversified portfolio
Every person has talents
Each one is required to ‘serve’ with the talents they possess
Talents must be traded for growth
Profit is the goal of trading our talents
Profit achieved will vary with the talents possessed
The trading approach will differentiate the size of the profit
Rewards and sanctions will applied based on the profit realized.
The trading approach will be differentiated by the character of the servants.
With this understanding, you are empowered with insights on how to trade your talent for profit.
Buy the truth and sell it not.
A powerful counsel is given by Solomon in Proverbs 23:23.
It provides a vital key to understanding what matters most when it comes to trading our talents for profit.
See, he stated emphatically that you should “buy the truth and sell it not“!
Is there no physician there?”, the leader wondered.
Buy the truth, and do not sell it, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
In the context of trading activity or strategy, this means that you must trade “truth” more than anything else if you must realize maximum returns.
That you must not sell the truth means you must never attempt to operate without the requisite underlying truth.
Put differently, there is a ‘truth’ required to motivate and guide your talent trading activity that’s guaranteed to produce the profit you desire.
Stop trading your talent without relying on distinctive and powerful truths, proven to produce profit when deployed.
That was what the two servants who made profits from trading their talents deployed. They traded truth to realize a profit that their Master found pleasing.
The other servant ‘traded falsehood,’ obviously.
The real truth behind the trading profit.
The two servants produced 100% profit from trading their talents while the third servant produced 0% profit.
The difference between the two groups of servants is character.
The master identified this when he labeled the profit-producing servants as good and faithful while calling the zero-profit-producing servant wicked and lazy.
This is a secret showing that character, not skill, was behind the results produced by each group of servants.
The profit-producing servants exhibited strong character. They were diligent, focused, truthful, and morally upright. They simply couldn’t contemplate any reason why they would not go to any length to ensure they contributed to their master’s wealth.
The third servant lacked strong character. He was wicked because while drawing a salary and other benefits from the Master’s organization, he still felt comfortable accusing the latter of fraud.
He was lazy because his accusation was only an excuse not to make any contribution that would involve exerting himself. He was good with ‘eating his cake and having it.’
So the real truth behind the profit produced from trading your talent is character. You must trade character much more than you trade skill.
Your strength of character will determine how much profit you will produce from trading your talent.
More specifically, diligence and moral excellence, both rather than any single one, will always produce profit for you when you trade your talent.
Your strength of character will determine how much profit you will produce from trading your talent.
The source of the profit-producing truth
So, how come the profit-producing servants possessed the character they leveraged?
Why was the third servant such an outlier?
The profit-producing servants apparently benefitted from the character attributes of their Master while lazy servant opted out.
When you read the version of the parable in Luke 19, you will realize that the Master was a noble person.
He had gone to receive a ‘kingdom’ from a far country. That is, he went to receive the highest honour.
That’s an indication that he was a man of strong character. He wasn’t lazy or wicked. He was being rewarded for contributions he had made to society in some form or the other.
He was also a diligent and morally upright person.
The profit-producing servants had noted character as the secret behind his excellent conduct and made the effort to secure the same benefits from him.
Thus they could not conduct themselves differently in the handling of the responsibility (to trade talents) that he gave them.
The lazy servant opted to feed on lies and falsehoods about the Master. Accusing him of fraud, reaping whether he hadn’t sown, was simply ridiculous.
You will wonder why he still chose to remain in the Master’s employment since he held the view that he was a fraud.
The real truth to ‘buy’ is…
The real truth to ‘buy’ and not sell is the truth about the character of your Master (or leader).
That was what the profit-producing servants ‘bought.’
Focus your attention on your leader because all you need to deliver on their expectations can be learned from them.
What your leader offers is what makes them who they are. It is what makes them get the results they get, and now demand from you.
For the Master to demand profit from the talents given to the servants, it is clear that it’s the same business he had been doing for a while.
He had always been profitable and they had been working for him.
But now, because he was stepping away for some time, he could challenge them to show how much they had gained from following and working with him.
The two performing servants had gained a lot, now showing strength of character, while the slacking servant had gained nothing!
So, trade your talent by the true character of your leader to show profit worthy of celebration and promotion.
Leading by sharing for growth and a joyful experience.
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