The Greatest Superpower

You are paid for what you do because you offer value to the world. It could be something as simple as your time and energy. The more skill you offer, the better you will be compensated. And remember, it is a free market out there; everyone is offering something which they think is of value and if someone else perceives the value, he or she will be willing to pay for it.

How much value you are offering to the world determines your worth. Often you are deemed valuable because you solve your customer's pain. They are grateful that someone is willing to do some difficult or 'dirty' task on their behalf. Your skillsets could be very unique and difficult to acquire. You had to go through a lot of pain to gain the experience which you now have. And that process of undergoing pain, honed your skillsets and hence imbued you with value. 

My job is to solve technical problems. On the outset it appears to be a simple one. If you know the subject matter well, you should be able to logically troubleshoot issues and offer solutions. How do you get to know your subject well? 

Sometimes there are formal trainings for specific products or skillsets, such as programming. Most of the time, you have to learn things on your own, usually the hard way, through trial and error. And that is a painful process. 

But that's alright. Because you can take the pain. You do not see the problems that are presented to you as 'stress'. You see it instead as a challenge and an opportunity to learn. And there-in lies  your unique value-proposition: what kind of pain can you take that other people can't?

What others see as pain, is an opportunity for you to offer value, simply because you have the skill and wherewithal to overcome the pain easily. It is pain that you 'like'. And if you are good at identifying the types of pain that you can take on behalf of others, it becomes your skill.

We often wonder with gratitude that there are people who would be willing to take on 'dirty' jobs like unclogging the sewage, or disposing off rubbish. But if you ask people who do that for a living, they would say that they are used to it. What is your unique pain proposition? What kind of pain don't you mind?

Sometimes it is simply not minding the boredom. There are tons of boring jobs in the world and if you are willing to take them on, hey, that's another skill which you can put on your CV. One man's meat is another man's poison. The more poison you can take, the more valuable you are to the world.

Make yourself resilient. Why nitpick or complain over small things? Why stress unnecessarily over issues that are ultimately of no consequence? When you are able to position yourself in a place where you can absorb all the pain that others choose to avoid, you have a great advantage. 

As they say, no pain, no gain. Even better, if you could transform pain into pleasure. For example, going through the pain of tackling a difficult problem, could help you gain a lot of valuable experience. That is the pleasure that you will get out of the pain. 

The perception of a person's value is often his or her resilience to pain. All the pains of the world are simply opportunities for you to offer value. Welcome pain. Tame it and make it your friend. That is the greatest superpower that you could acquire.