As I was eating my Cheerios one morning and glancing through the small town paper we get twice a week, I spotted a picture of Juan Hermasillo opening a new pizza shop.
Who is Juan?
Why, he's the World Champion Acrobatic Pizza Spinner! Check him out on YouTube if you don't believe me.
The fact that there are actually pizza spinning competitions, complete with world class levels was a revelation to me. But here was Juan demonstrating his prowess to open the new shop and, incidentally, raise money for a local charity.
That got me thinking. Juan has a sponsor, which means he performs his feats of pizza daring for some kind of remuneration. He has built a reputation and career out of something most of us would overlook or dismiss as ordinary.
Now, I can't picture him as a small child telling the adults he wanted to spin pizza when he grew up but somewhere along the way he realized he had talent. I'm also sure there were naysayers.
"Juan, don't do this. You can't make a living at it. Pizza spinning? A hobby, maybe but in the meantime, get a real job."
Juan probably struggled with his own gremlins, wondering if they were right but he obviouslyt didn't let any of this stop him because he is now the World Champion.
Which tells me that Juan believed in his gift and accepted this talent as uniquely his own. He looked at what he held in his hand (literally) and believed in himself. He practiced and competed and practiced some more. (I wonder how much pizza dough sits in the landfill of his hometown?)
He found opportunity or created it for himself. He never stopped until he was World Champion and had a sponsor.
There really is a lesson there for you and I. We may think all we possess is plain old ordinary pizza dough but when you bring your own unique spin (sorry) to what life gives you, when you accept the gift of your talent then you create success for yourself.
Ask yourself, what is one thing I do well? It may come so easily that you take it for granted while others are saying, "I wish I could do that."
It may be hard for you to see so don't be afraid to ask. Take a small poll of your family, friends and fellow workers. Don't overlook the smallest thing. Don't pooh-pooh anything as insignificant.
I once heard a woman tell her story about being a young wife who made great chocolate chip cookies. The world now knows her as Debbie Fields of Mrs. Field's Cookies fame.
Claim the possibility in your own unique talent. Once you start looking at what you hold in your own hands, who knows where it will lead or what it might develop into. Nothing is ordinary if you love it.
