The Incredible Edge That the Talent Stack Can Give You
Author and creator of the Dilbert comic, Scott Adams, created a concept that has explained some of the most successful people and even companies in the world. To understand this concept, start by thinking about who the fastest hockey player is today. Not sure? How about the strongest football player- (NFL or soccer), you pick? Still no? How about the golfer that drives the ball the furthest? Probably also no.
The point of these questions is not to show how much we don’t know about sports. It will work with a variety of things. What is the highest rated restaurant in the world? Who is the smartest politician?
Make Yourself Valuable
Scott Adams as stated that there are 2 ways to make yourself valuable. The first one is to be the best at something specific. Tiger Woods dominated golf. Bill Gates dominated computer software. Michael Jordan dominated basketball. Very few of us can be that his level, so that route is probably closed to us.
It is the second way that is much more interesting and accessible with deliberate practice. Adams calls it the “Talent Stack.” He cites himself as a great example of the talent stack. He is a decent artist, but not great and his writing is passable. However, he is pretty funny, especially with current events and office politics and general stupidity, and he is a super hard worker. When you “stack” all of those things together, you get a very unique and commercially viable value. The “Dilbert” franchise is one of the most successful comics of all time.
The fact that he is not the best at any of the things in the stack are irrelevant because he puts them together in such a powerful package and has become incredibly successful.
It is unlikely you know who the fastest, strongest or hardest shooter is in hockey. By themselves, these talents do not make a good hockey player. However, the ability to get to open ice; set up your team-mate to score from your pass; pick any part of the net and score regardless of where the goalie is; pass without looking; effortlessly “deke out” the other team (go around them while having control of the puck) and dump in the puck in such a way that it comes right back to you while the opposing team thinks it is going in another direction are part of a monster talent stack that Wayne Gretzky created and has never been duplicated.
Again, he is considered small even by 1980s standards, he was not fast or strong and his shot was not that hard. None of these things mattered when put up against his stack. His stack was so large that we have only scratched the surface and we could list another 5-10 major skills he worked on from the time he was 2 and a half years old that made him by far the greatest and most successful hockey player in history.
Companies do the same thing. There are thousands of restaurants that are rated very highly but I cannot think of any immediately. The best food, service and building all go into the rating, but when faced with a talent stack, there is one company that totally dominates them all.
They have a giant, super effective marketing machine; they have extreme convenience (you don’t even have to get out of your car-and now they even deliver); popularity with all age groups; they upsell (“would you like the combo/fries/to supersize”) like no one else does and the food is easy to eat and makes you feel good. You will have recognized the McDonald’s talent stack. Few people would maintain that they have the best food, ambiance or service, but it is irrelevant. They have a talent stack that is so appealing that they continue to dominate fast food around the globe.
Scott Adams also predicted the victory of a politician who was so divisive that his chances at success were considered nonexistent. He is not the smartest, the best looking, the most eloquent or even particularly relatable. However, he is a decent public speaker; he is reasonably smart; he is fairly funny; he knows how to use social media; he understands politics more than most; he is persuasive and he is great at branding. That unique talent stack led Donald Trump to win the presidency of the United States. That is how powerful a good talent stack is!
The point of the talent stack is to take a number of skills you are decent at and stack them uniquely, like the examples above did, to make yourself valuable to others.
If you are a car salesman, you might create a stack with your talents in: social media, branding, creating online content about vehicle maintenance, empathetically selling based on needs and relationship management. You don’t need to be the best at any of these, only good at them and create a unique package that creates value for people.
Another great feature of the talent stack is that if you apply it authentically, people will feel that, and you will be able to persuade them of your value rather than hard sell them. As you improve the skills in your stack, you will also have an increase in confidence as your competence improves. People will feel your confidence and will in turn feel that you are more competent and that they should do business with you. The confidence/competence duo will continue to feed on each other and grow and in turn make you more successful.
That is the edge that the Talent Stack will give you!