[This post is part of a series on internal objections and blocks and how to overcome them. If you don’t see a Table of Contents to the left, click here to view the series, where you’ll get more value than reading just this post.]

Objection

People often complain that the project they want to do requires skills or abilities they don’t have:

I don’t know how to do it.

I’m too introverted.

I’m not smart enough.

Example

I hear people claim they can’t perform plenty of business and social interactions because they just don’t get along with people; they want to do things alone. Or people claim they’ve never been that smart.

Underlying belief

Their usual underlying belief is that only extraordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.

I suspect they are also so worried they won’t be able to achieve whatever goal is in question that they’d rather convince people and themselves that something they can’t do anything about prevents them.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I know not everyone can do everything. Professional basketball players tend to be taller than six feet and it’s tough to make the pros if you aren’t as tall. Not everyone can do everything.

But few activities pit the best in the country or world against each other. For that matter, not many of history’s greats were genetically clearly taller, smarter, etc than average.

Alternative belief

People with ordinary innate abilities achieve great things. Forming effective teams achieves a lot more than a bit of extra intelligence or being a people person.

Any average person can develop the same skills anyone else can. Consider yesterday’s example of Donald Trump. Whether you want the money or power he has or some other goal, he has achieved a lot, at least materially.

With respect to Mr. Trump, does anything you know about him suggest he has any special innate abilities anybody else doesn’t?

I suggest to the contrary that

people of average ability can achieve as great things as nearly anyone else.

History contains plenty of great achievements performed not by Einsteins but regular people. And, for that matter, many extraordinary people lead rather ordinary lives.

Also

Social skills enable you to acquire any external resources. And anybody can develop social skills.

Dedication, focus, drive, and other motivations can create in you any social skills. I suggest believing

I can learn how to do it.

I’m introverted now but can learn skills of extroverted people.

I’m as smart as anyone who achieved similar things as I want to.

Alternative strategy

Make developing social skills a first part of any strategy to achieve anything that requires more than the skills or external resources you already have.

Notes

Developing social skills helps your life a lot more than just enabling you to acquire resources. It makes life more rewarding.

• ← Common objection 3: I don’t have enough money/time/connections/etc
• Common objection 5: I have to take care of “real world” issues first →