Your Superpower Is a Problem You Solve, Not a Skill You Have

I joined Samuel Knickerbocker on Fuel Your Legacy, a show about building a life and business that outlast you. We got into how you find your so-called superpower. Most people answer that with a list of skills. I think that is the wrong list.

Your superpower is a problem, not a skill

A skill is something you can do. A superpower is a problem you solve better than the people around you. Those are not the same thing, and the difference matters. When you lead with skills, you sound like everyone else with the same resume. When you lead with a problem, the right person leans in because you just described their week.

So the exercise is not what am I good at. It is what people keep coming to me for, and what changes for them after I help. Name that. That is the thing to build around.

Point everything at the one problem

Once you know the problem, the hard part is letting the other stuff go. It feels safer to keep offering everything you can do. It is not safer. It makes you forgettable and it makes you cheap. Narrow the offer to the one problem, price it for the value of solving it, and say no to the work that pulls you off it. A premium problem can carry a premium price, but only if you are known for solving it.