In our society we place a large value on potential. We measure kids' IQ to see what their potential for learning is. We hear the sports broadcasters talking about how much potential a particular player has. We speak glowingly of a person because they have so much potential in life. Well I learned early in my business career that a bag full of potential plus $10 is worth $10 and no more until you actually do something of value.

I find that the many of the people who seem to be the most obsessed by their potential are the people who have been told that they have a high IQ. They love to have "intellectual" conversations and to theorize about anything and everything but they don't actually produce anything.

You can have the highest IQ on the planet but if you don't use it to produce something of value to others then it will never pay your rent or buy your food or put clothes on your back. We all have the potential for greatness if we learn how to apply it but it is far more useful to take our minds away from valuing potential and put them to valuing actual results.

If you focus your attention on the results that you are producing and you ask questions about how to improve those results then you will start to actually improve those results. On the other hand if you sit around thinking about your potential then your life won't improve one bit.

One of the traps with potential is that it is only a theory. You really have no idea what your potential is. Given the right motivation you may be able to achieve such amazing things that you would astound yourself but you will never know unless you actually take the time and effort to do it.

After ten years of financial failure Og Mandino turned to drink and became an alcoholic. He wife left him and took their only child and Og became a homeless bum sleeping in parks and on the street for the next two years.

One cold day he wandered into a library to escape the falling snow and while he was in there he started reading books on how to become successful. He continued going back to the library every day and read everything he could on success and motivation. He started to apply what he was learning and he quit drinking and managed to get a job in the insurance company of Clement Stone, one of the authors who had inspired him.

By applying the principles he had learned from the books he became a sales manger within a year and later was made the president of a minor publishing business that Stone owned. He turned that business into a major publishing house and publisher of the international best selling magazine Success Unlimited.

Later Og turned his hand to writing and became one of the biggest selling authors in history and one of the most in demand, highly paid, public speakers.

What was Og's potential worth while he was sleeping in the park? It is impossible to know what greatness is inside you until you take the actions that let that greatness out and turns worthless potential success into highly rewarding actual success.

What have you been doing in your life to turn your unknown potential into actual success? You may just be amazed at the incredible things that you can accomplish if you just devote the time and activity required to find out.