I gotta tell you, I LOVE THIS POST! This should be mandatory reading for everyone in America these days! It actually reminds me of an incident that happened to me a few months back. I believe, as you do, that I am an expert. I was talking to a woman and she was very upset that I would dare to call myself an expert in anything. I assured her that I was, that I had lead a rich and interesting life and that I was hands down an expert. She seemed to think this was very unethical and misleading to claim myself an expert. She assured me that SHE didn’t consider HERSELF an expert in ANYTHING! I didn’t want to wast the energy to disagree with her any more, even though I KNEW she was wrong and that she WAS an expert.

A couple of months later, I am at a networking event and there are a panel of experts at the front of the room. During the question and answer portion of the meeting, someone gets up and asks the panel a question that was a little out of their field of expertise. THE SAME WOMAN I had that conversation with, then stands up and fields the question for the person because she had some specialized knowledge in that area. At that time, in that moment, in that group, she was the HANDS DOWN expert in regards to that subject matter. The sad thing is, she probably didn’t even recognize that in herself or give herself the credit for being an expert. I also didn’t want to tell her that “I told her so”, even though I knew I had. For her, it may have seemed like every day or just common knowledge. To her, IT WAS and that’s what made her the expert! She had that unique insight and knowledge that no one else has. And everyone DOES have that about SOMETHING!

It is really sad and unfortunate that people don’t recognize the incredible expertise that lies within them. Maybe in time, that will change. Thanks, again, for another great post, Steve!

Tom Maher
The Possibilities Coach
http://www.epcoachtom.com