There is absolutely no such thing.
Every skill is specialized, all knowledge is acquired, and there is no such thing as “common sense.” If you want to be really, really frustrated your entire life, ignore that statement.
Everyone is good at something. What a lot of people are not good at, is knowing what that something is. Not because it’s some hidden talent they never use! It might be something they do twenty times a day, flawlessly. That’s not why they don’t realize they’re good at it.
They don’t realize, because they think everyone is good at it. That it’s just a sort of general competency that comes with being alive.
There is absolutely no such thing.
If you’re good at something, I guarantee you that lots and lots and lots of people will be bad at it. This knowledge can help you in two tremendous ways:
- You can stop being frustrated when other people aren’t good at it. You get frustrated because you think that person is the exception, but they’re not. They’re the general rule – you’re the exception.
- You can realize that this gives you an amazing opportunity to be a value-add in other people’s lives, by either doing that thing for them or showing them how to do it.
Day after day, I see people that generalize from the self and make this assumption, and watch them get frustrated as a result. Watching that used to frustrate me – but it didn’t take me long to realize exactly what I was doing. Now, I take my own advice.
And I write this blog post for you!
The Opportunity Machine 