Skip to main content

Verified by Psychology Today

Intelligence

The Abilities That Count

Bringing out the best in others.

There are as many kinds of abilities as there are varieties of intelligence and physical prowess. The most important ability we can acquire is in the social realm. It is the way that we interact with others that is really important. The ability that counts is the ability to bring out the best in others.

Some of us are born gregarious and are socially at ease. There are those who are naturally fearful. Upon this comes that which we learn from others and our own experiences.

Society requires people of many different social abilities. There are leaders and there are followers; there are dreamers and there are doers. Some receive the glory and others remain in the shadows. What is most important is the way in which we add to the over-all goodness of things, not the particular ability that we possess.

Each of us is capable of contributing something in this regard. And sometimes it is the person with less obvious abilities-the quiet, the steady, the slow-who is really the exceptional person.

Our abilities develop with time and with practice. Certainly some have more innate talent than others. But often the least able, with practice, are capable of succeeding where the most talented who are indifferent and careless often fail.

The only real disability is to act irresponsibly, indifferent to the fate of others.

advertisement
More from Arthur Dobrin D.S.W.
More from Psychology Today