The Fourth Skill Nobody Told Me About

I came across a viral Facebook reel recently telling people that hard work is not enough.

I agree.

The woman in the reel said there are three invaluable skills we should learn if we want to get ahead in life: speaking and communicating, writing, and selling or marketing.

Again, I agree.

But I have a confession.

I learned those things when I was seven. 😂🤣🤪😁

Okay, perhaps I didn’t know that what I was doing was called communication, writing and marketing. At seven, I simply knew how to talk, write and convince people.

What I think the reel missed, however, is a fourth skill.

Be enterprising.

And I don’t necessarily mean become an entrepreneur.

I mean learn to look at your work, your circumstances, your resources—and ask:

“What can I do with these?”

I learned this rather accidentally during my corporate years.

I did quite well as a sales representative for a multinational company. And somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking of myself merely as an employee doing a job.

I began thinking of my job as a little business of my own.

The company had systems in place. We had staff who helped us prepare proposals, contracts and other documents. We could simply send our requirements to the office and wait for them to be done.

My colleagues did exactly that.

I didn’t.

I bought my own electronic typewriter.

Then a laptop.

And a laser printer.

Yes, a laser printer. Not a dot-matrix. Not an inkjet. A laser printer. 😂🤣🤪😁

It wasn’t because I was particularly techie. I simply didn’t like waiting.

While some of my fellow sales representatives were still in the office waiting for their proposals or contracts to be prepared, I was already sitting in my client’s office having coffee.

And talking.

Not necessarily about the product I was selling.

I wanted to know about their business.

How did they start?

What were they trying to build?

What was working?

What wasn’t?

What did they hope the business would become?

Those conversations turned out to be some of the most valuable parts of my job.

And then, because apparently one little business wasn’t enough, I started two small companies of my own while I was still working for the multinational.

They became quite successful.

But I also discovered another use for them.

They gave me another reason to visit my clients.

I didn’t want them to think that once I’d closed a deal, I was no longer interested in them. So I would visit, talk about my other businesses, ask about theirs—and, of course, quietly tick off one more item on my KPI list. 😂🤣🤪😁

Many of my clients had started very small.

I loved listening to their stories.

How they started.

How they found their first customers.

How they survived difficult years.

How they slowly grew.

And some of them really did grow.

One of those little businesses eventually became a major financial institution.

I had known its people when the business was still small, and even after it had grown considerably, I never forgot how different it felt in those early days.

Maybe they simply needed one more eager person to listen.

Except that I needed to tick off a KPI.

😂🤣🤪😁

Looking back, I think that was part of what made me enjoy sales.

I wasn’t simply selling something.

I was constantly looking for possibilities.

For my company.

For my clients.

For myself.

And perhaps that is what being enterprising really means.

Not necessarily starting a business.

Not necessarily working harder.

Not necessarily selling more.

It is looking at what you have—and asking:

“What can I do with this?”

That question has served me rather well.

And perhaps it is a skill worth learning.