Back when I was a first setting out to make my mark in the business world (you know, like when dinosaurs roamed the earth and we’d just barely given up 8-track tapes) I had a serious conversation with myself…

“Self”, I said, “You can’t know everything in this world.  What are the three areas which are truly the source of your power?”  Not power in a “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” sense of the word, but the kind of real-world, practical power upon which I could build my foundation.

At the time the answer was psychology, computers, and statistics. I’d been raised in a family of psychologists and “worked” in my Dad’s practice.  (I put worked in quotes because I didn’t get paid…and I also got SO much more out of it than my peers who worked at McDonalds or the ice cream store!)

So there was no psychology book I didn’t want to read, no seminar I didn’t want to go to, and no psychotherapist who’s brain I didn’t want to pick for at least an hour… So psychology definitely was one leg of the triangle.

In both college my professors noticed and rewarded me for my quantitative abilities.  They trained me to hone this into an ability to INFER causality in human behavior rather than asking it directly…

I therefore attended a “Scientist-Practitioner” oriented graduate school where experimentation and research methods were emphasized…

They taught me how to “get the soul in the machine”…these days what we would call “Thin Slicing” life and analyzing it with numbers.  We did esoteric things like code the mother-infant bond microsecond by microsecond. At the time I actually thought it was stupid…

Until the computers analyzed the numbers and lit them up like a firefly in July.  They told a story no human eye could reveal in no uncertain terms. Hence, computers and statistics entered my power fields.

So, at an early age I was convinced the place I’d get a real edge over my peers in the business world was by making a serious, lifelong study of psychology, computers, and statistics.

Looking back on it, this was an incredibly valuable decision. Having this filter from which to view the world…

Knowing the skills and knowledge base I personally wanted to expand…

They all provided me with a tremendous focal point that truly has given me an edge over the competition. Moreover, the three are so much more powerful when combined…

Computer Geeks rule the world (and yes, I AM a Geek trapped in a Jock’s body!)  But they’re becoming progressively more plentiful.  And as most of the literally thousands of stellar programmers on my lists will tell you, it’s not enough to be talented with code. Inferential statistics is a very powerful science.  Yet there aren’t too many millionaire stat professors coming out of even our most prestigious universities.

And don’t even get me started on the financial rewards of psychology.  A good psychologist STILL only gets a salary of about $80,000…and maybe only 10% of them become entrepreneurial enough to develop their private practices into the multiple six figure range twenty or thirty years into their careers.

But when you COMBINE these three power skills, magic starts to happen. Nobody expects someone who’s good with computers and statistics to also have the sensitivity, insight, and psychological fortitude to see what’s going on inter-personally at the highest level. It’s at the intersection of these skills (and knowledge bases) that the real power lies.

And I’m so happy I made the decision to focus on and develop them early in my life.

Now, I’ve got to tell you I did NOT develop all of them in the exact direction I imagined starting out… I originally thought I’d be designing inferential human studies for large corporations for the rest of my life…and anyone who knows me knows I got burned out of that in 1998 when Bausch and Lomb made me fly back and forth to Tokyo for a one hour meeting in a 36 hour time frame.  (At least I got to eat the world’s best sushi!) And I’d never have guessed my study of psychology would lead to doing so much copywriting and product development… but it did.

But that question I asked myself sitting all alone in my room 25 years ago still turned out to be one of the most important questions anyone ever posed to me…

So now I’m asking YOU…

What are your three power skills? I’d really like to know!

Upwards and Onwards…

The Very Good Dr. Glenn 🙂

PS – I know modesty isn’t one of my power skills.  But honestly, screw modesty…I’ll take success over it any day! PPS – Enrollment in the Coaching Academy is open this week.  If you’d like to meet some very special people and get help to identify your own power skills (including the opportunity to work with me personally in live webinars once a week…and my darling wife twice a week), maybe you should consider taking the $25 trial?