Ed was a retiree who lived near our family store. One day, Ed saw me and asked me what kind of business he could get into. Ed said he could use some extra income as his pension wasn’t really enough.
I asked Ed what he used to do. He said his job before retirement was at a petroleum company’s main facility, doing office work. As a hobby, he learned Taekwondo and became a black belt master. He used to instruct one or two people a month in Taekwondo.
There you have it, I told Ed. You’re a black belt Taekwondo master qualified to be an instructor. You can earn some extra income teaching students in Taekwondo. Ed nodded his head and said that’s right.
We all have superpowers. We just have to acknowledge them and tap them for our benefit and for the benefit of others.
A superpower doesn’t have to be a unique kind of ability. It can be a skill every person may have. The idea is that whatever superpower we have, we do it well. So well that we stand out.
A janitor nicknamed Poning at the factory where I used to work was a very hard worker. He cleaned the offices of the executives early in the morning every day before people would arrive for work. Poning learned how to proficiently operate the office photocopier, the stand-by generator, and the centralised air-conditioning system. From an everyday janitor, Poning practically transformed himself into the office’s all-around utility man. The office staff would not let him go when his agency’s contract was up for renewal. He stayed for many years.
Tony used to be a construction worker. He took it upon himself to learn about plumbing, carpentry, and welding and became pretty good in each. He became a free-lance handyman. With a trained pool of helpers, he was able to snare job after job with households and buildings to repair or renovate bathrooms, kitchens, and furniture. He later set up his own private business and continues to get jobs with clients all over the city.
A security commander at an office building learned how to fix desktop computers and laptops. He now has a side-line repairing computers of office workers. He also invested in an eight-seater van and during the 2020 pandemic, shuttled workers to and from their residences to the office building where his duty as security commander was. Needless to say, he earns much more than his peers.
We don’t need to look for some super-duper skill or invent some super-duper product or service. We don’t need to be geniuses or Olympic-level athletes to be successful. We just need to decide what kind of stuff we want to do and be good at it.
All of us have superpowers. We don’t need to find them because they are already within us. We just have to cultivate the ones we like to do and become excellent in doing them. We become super-people when we do.
Ellery's Essays 