Potential vs. expertise

When Mark Cuban was asked, " are you more interested in getting someone who is an expert at something? Or would you rather have someone with more potential?" he answered, "I want an expert. Everybody's got potential, everybody. I want someone who knows something, give me someone who knows their, every time, 'cause then I can turn it into something real... If you just have potential, chances are, you're working for the expert." 1 

Now I am about to start my academic career, and I primarily bank on 'potential' when making a case to someone for hiring me. So, naturally, my first thought was to disagree, but on closer deliberation, I agreed. We all have unlimited potential, and the only way it gets useful is when we can harness this potential, and to harness this potential, you need expertise 2. It is like the water in the dam - huge potential but only becomes useful when we harness its energy using turbines. 

Another fallacy to believing in potential over expertise is the complacency trap! 3 Cultivating expertise needs focus, intent, and deliberation; the potential is given and, by definition, latent.  

I may be a woman of immense potential ;-), but I want to (and will) become a woman of immense expertise! 

So, to those who believed in me at this point - THANK YOU for your trust. And those who could not - I UNDERSTAND completely. 

Date: 18th February, 2023