I’ve made a lot of decisions in life based on “potential.” This idea that someone or something has some undeniable inner quality that is eventually going to manifest itself and become something great. Everything has potential. Kids have the potential to grow up to be president. A tree has the potential to become a page in a great piece of literature. A Red Rider BB Gun has the potential to shoot your eye out.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers he tell the story of Chris Langan the smartest man alive. Despite an IQ higher than Einstein, Langan seems to have lived a rather unremarkable life. Potential hasn’t gotten him very far.
I can think of choices I’ve made, which I justified by “potential.” There was the pretty girl, who wasn’t really following Christ, but she said she wanted to. There were the people who I helped with on projects, only to see them bogged down by what was often their own brilliance. I see this the most in the mirror. I reflect at the opportunities, potential successes I’ve been given, but my track record has yet to live up to my own potential.
Jesus said a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit. I gather two things from his teaching:
- I desperately want to be a good tree
- I want to surround myself with other good trees
It’s hard, judging by fruit. I remember a mentor of mine saying “you never get over an attractive person finding you attractive.” Putting those feelings on hold to really look at the other person, and judge their fruit, that takes a resolve I’ve yet to develop. This applies to all sorts of endeavors, business partners, stocks, banks, ministers, TV shows, authors, girls… What kind of fruit have this person borne?
At the end of the day, anything has potential to become anything. I’ll stick with fruit.
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