What if I told you that you’re sitting on buried treasure right now? There’s a parable of gold that goes like this: A master was heading out on a journey and called upon his servants. He entrusted his wealth to each servant, giving them each a bag of gold. He gave one five bags, another two bags, and to another one bag, based upon each of their abilities. Then he set out on his journey.

The servant who received the five bags of gold put it to work immediately and gained five more bags. The man with two bags did the same and earned two more bags as well. However, the man with one bag dug a hole and hid the master’s gold.

Upon the master’s return, he went to each of his servants to see what they had done with the wealth he left them. The servant with five bags of gold reported that he gained five more. To which the master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.” He then went on to check in with the servant who he gave two bags of gold, where he too was able to report that he had put the money to work and earned another two bags of gold. He too pleased the master, to whom he also said, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”

The master then went to the man he gave one bag of gold to. The servant reported that he knew the master was a hard man and wouldn’t be pleased if he lost or misused his gold, so he buried it for fear of losing it. The master wasn’t impressed and told him he was wicked and lazy not to do anything with the gold he left him. At bare minimum, he could have invested it in the bank, and the master would have earned interest on it. The master then declared, “Take his one bag of gold away from him and give it to the one who has ten bags,” and said, “For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

This ancient story isn’t just about money—it’s about the talents we’ve been given. As with the servants, you’ve been given bags of gold, and they’ve come in the form of your special skills, abilities, and talents. God has entrusted you with these gifts so you could use them and make something of yourself and the life you were put here on this planet to create.

There are some people whose gifts are easy to see—they have a natural talent to sing, play soccer, or a passion to fly people into outer space.

Like the servant entrusted with five bags of gold, they commit and discipline their life to learning, practicing, and using their talents. You can think of those who have mastered their profession or industry and are thought of as the greats in their category: preeminent swimmer Michael Phelps, poet Maya Angelou, and artist Leonardo da Vinci.

Or like the servant with two bags of gold, your talents may not be so clear and natural. But through experimentation, trial and error, and continuous improvement, you stumble into your great body of work.

Julia Child worked in advertising before she published her first cookbook at age 50 and launched her cooking show. Vera Wang thought she’d be a professional figure skater and was left devastated when she didn’t make the 1968 Olympics. She later spent 17 years as an editor with Vogue, and at the age of 40 became an independent bridal designer. Child and Wang each took their two bags of gold and kept investing them, eventually compounding their rate of return into brilliant and fulfilling careers.

Then there’s a destiny that many face: they’re so afraid to put themselves out there that they bury their talents for fear of being judged or rejected.

If J.K. Rowling buried her talent, there’d be no Harry Potter. Instead, after being rejected by twelve publishers, she eventually got an agent, published her first book, and built an empire on the Wizarding World. Today kids get to debate which house is better—Gryffindor or Slytherin—because J.K. Rowling didn’t bury her talent.

You may have been told you didn’t have the skill to do something you desperately wanted. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team because they told him he didn’t have the skill. He is now considered one of the GOATs, one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Anna Wintour was fired early on in her career at Harper’s Bazaar. If she had given up, she would have never become the most influential editor-in-chief at Vogue magazine.

Then there are those who have buried their talents. They had no idea who they could have become or the impact they could have had.

Fear of failure, navigating the tension of the unknown, or the inner-critical voice planted weeds of doubt that debilitated them from moving forward. Sadly, their gifts and impact will never come to be because, like the anxious and hesitant servant, they left them buried in the ground.

Now, over to you: How have you put your bags of gold to use? How have you invested in them? Are you seeing a return on that investment? Or are you asking, “What bags? I don’t have any bags of gold!”

Don’t let fear turn you into the third servant. Your bags of gold are waiting to be invested. What’s the first small step you can take today?

Did you know that the first cut to making a brilliant diamond is the easiest? It’s called a table cut and it’s the large, flat facet on top of each diamond. It’s also the largest facet of a diamond and plays an instrumental role in how light enters and reflects back. The table facet is also considered one of the easiest cuts because of its size and the fact that it’s the top of the stone and doesn’t require the precision and symmetry of the other cuts.

I share this with you because, I don’t know about you, but if you’re anything like me, you put a lot of pressure on that first cut. We want to get it right, whether it’s a project, job, business, speech, or any new endeavour. We fear getting it wrong, making a mistake, or failing miserably.

When my daughter was six years old, we registered her for swimming lessons. She was reluctant to go, and when we pressed why, she asked us if she could learn how to swim before she went to her first class. She was afraid of what her teacher and swim mates would think or say because she didn’t know how to swim. She was worried they’d think she wasn’t good enough or that she didn’t have the skill to make it as a swimmer.

Like my daughter, many of us don’t allow ourselves the opportunity to learn how to swim. Instead, we expect to be Phelps right out of the gate, even before we’ve made a first attempt. We want to nail the pitch, ace the interview, or successfully launch a passion project from the get-go, never giving ourselves the grace to learn, grow, and yes, even fail.

Perfectionism is a Brilliant Difference® dimmer. It’s disguised as having high standards, being conscientious, and being an ambitious striver. I’m all too familiar with the highly critical voice of perfectionism. Perfectionist tendencies hold you back from sharing your ideas, gifts, and talents. It’s the brain’s way of keeping you safe and protected. Because if you share your ideas, bring your gifts, and show the world who you are, you will be judged, criticized, and potentially condemned. To avoid all of this mayhem, you avoid or procrastinate showing your work, because if it’s not going to be perfect, it’s better to not show it at all.

It took me three years to launch a podcast. I signed up for three different “how to launch a podcast” courses and set up my office with the right microphone and sound equipment. Months went by, and I still didn’t launch. I was petrified of not doing it right and wondering if I’d have anything valuable to say.

Then, I thought it wasn’t me—rather it was my equipment. So I ordered another brand new mic and interface system, hoping that would fix my procrastination problem. But yet again, starting the podcast was still a figment of my imagination and wasn’t any closer to coming to fruition. At one point, I got really close to pressing publish, as I had pre-recorded five episodes, but got cold feet because it wasn’t the perfect time—we were in the midst of a pandemic.

It wasn’t until I sat down to reflect on what was really getting in the way of hitting play. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to do it, that I didn’t have the right equipment, or that the timing wasn’t right. What it boiled down to was that I was afraid of failing, looking stupid, being judged, and criticized. Just like my six-year-old daughter who wanted to know how to swim before she attended her first swimming lesson, I too wanted to be a pro podcaster before I even put one podcast out there.

I don’t want you to fall into procrastination potholes by following the perfectionism GPS system. You’ve got big ideas that need to be shared, brilliant skills that need to be used to help others, and an impact to make.

The irony is, just like a diamond, the first cut is the easiest, as there’s not a lot on the line, just yet. But we make up a story that if we don’t get it right, we’ll be laughed at or shamed in some way, making it feel like it’s the hardest.

Remember this: a cloudy, gray, raw diamond transforms into a brilliant, sparkly one only because of that first table cut. Your Brilliant Difference will shine through only when you make that first cut to allow the light to shine through.

What’s the first cut you want to make on your diamond today?