1142 If You don't have Big Breasts

If you don't have big breasts, put ribbons in your pigtails.  That was Barbara's Mom's advice to teenage Barbara Corcoran, and it was also the title of her excellent book from the early 2000s.  (She has since retitled it Use What You've Got) The title referred to Barbara’s complaint about her job as a server at the local diner. The other server was, in Barbara’s estimation, getting more tips because she was showing a lot of cleavage.

The advice is sound regardless of how PC her Mom's words were.  I suck at a lot of things.  That's why I'm not an engineer, contractor, architect, lawyer, astronaut, physician, mechanic, or plumber.  Each of these promising professions requires abilities I lack and have no propensity toward attaining. 

I could name 100 more that I am unqualified for and would be tough to train for.  There are certain skills I just never developed.  That isn't to say if you grabbed young Frankie at the tender age of six or ten, you could not have apprenticed him to learn any of them. Still, as an adult, I possessed particular predilections that did not lend themselves to proficiency in those aforementioned professions. I’m good with that. I have many ribbons of my own.

The ribbons in my pigtails are focusing on others, listening well, and having a strong desire to help. I can put thoughts into words and write pretty well, and I have developed a few robust convincer strategies that have served me nicely in my business life. I also have a strong curiosity, a desire to research and learn, and a performance Jones that helps me do well in front of an audience.

I constantly seek brighter, different-colored ribbons to tie on, but I never lament my metaphorical flat chest or dwell on what isn't there.

My doctor is a genius diagnostician. She can look at me, ask some questions, and then go into her vast mental database for the proper diagnosis and treatment.  My accountant can site the newest tax laws and do five-digit math equations in his head, but if the three of us go to a ballgame and want the usher to move us to better seats, who do you think we will send to ask?

Going back to Barbara's Mom, enhance what you have.  Work it for all you're worth, and success will follow.  Imitation may be a sincere form of flattery, but imitating someone else, outside of your true north, will take you off course,

You do You and Own Your Sales Gene