For many years, I never realized how valuable my talents were to others. Since I began playing with Linux and building websites in the early 90s, I got really good at doing some fancy things because it was one of my passions. For fun, I would set up old PCs I had laying around and load Linux on them (for you geeks, I used the Slackware distribution on a bunch of floppys - those were the days). I started networking them together and learning the inside and out of tcp, upd, sockets, and anything else related to networking. I loved it. It was my passion (and still is).

Since it was one of my passions, I naturally enjoyed being around people with similar “hobbies” and skill sets. So, when the people I associated with knew the same things I knew, I didn’t “feel” like I had a marketable skill to others. I had the false impression that “everyone” knew about the same things. Sure, I felt like I knew more than a lot of people and might be able to make some money by selling my skills or knowledge but I WAY undersold my services. After many years, I finally realized how many people wanted the information that came so natural to me. Because it was second nature to me, I didn’t realize the value that information was to others.

What are your talents? What are you skilled at? Do you realize that there are a lot of people interested in your “second nature” skills and will pay good money to acquire some of your knowledge? All you need to do is to blog about it and create a product to sell. This can get you started on your way to success.

So, find your talents and realize how valuable they are to others. Don’t underestimate your value. Use it to be a success!

- Hill Robertson