EP305: Radical Purpose Part 3 - Skills Sharpen Purpose

The skills that shaped your purpose didn’t appear by chance; they were forged through repetition, pressure, and the work you never thought mattered. In this episode, we reveal how Hershey, Disney, and Jobs developed the mastery that powered their calling, and how your own early skills may be pointing toward something greater. If you’re ready to uncover the skill that could unlock your next level of leadership, press play and step into your Radical Purpose.

 Key Takeaways To Listen For

• Why skills turn raw traits into real leadership capacity
• How Milton Hershey mastered precision through repetition and failure
• The work ethic behind Walt Disney’s creative craftsmanship
• Why Steve Jobs’ design literacy came from obsession, not talent
• The “skill you avoid” that might unlock your next level

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Radical Purpose by Dr. Nate Salah 
• EP303: Radical Purpose, Part 1 - Context Matters 
• EP304: Radical Purpose, Part 2 - Traits are Seeds

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Dr. Nate Salah
Traits, create potential skills, create power traits, point you in the right direction, skills, move you in the right direction, traits, whisper who you might be, skills, shape who you become. Welcome back, my friends to episode three of the Radical Purpose Series. We got Radical Purpose book here and just cheering with. To you, these principles of living with radical purpose from the lives of Milton Hershey, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs, my dissertation work that's now going to be releasing three installments, Radical Purpose, Radical Products, Radical People. And so before we jump in, I want you to just pause me for a second. Whether you're driving, whether you're at the gym, you're cooking, you're walking, pause internally for a moment, what do you think about what we've uncovered so far? If you haven't listened to episode. One and two. Episode one was about the soil, where you were planted, what shaped your context, the world you inherited, not the world you chose.

[00:01:09]
 And then episode two, then it began to talk about the seed, the wiring, the traits that showed up early, the tendencies you carried before you even had language for leadership. Now, today, episode three, I need you to hear me clearly if episode two and then episode one before it helped you to understand your beginning episode three helps you to understand your becoming, because today we're gonna talk about skills, not talents, not gifts, not traits, skills. And here's the revelation I want you to sit with traits, create potential skills, create power traits, point you in the right direction, skills, move you in the right direction. You see traits whisper who you might be, skills shape who you become. And the most exciting part, you learn skills through work, through doing, through trying, through failing, through giving yourself fully to something that matters.

[00:02:14]
 So today you and I we're gonna explore how the early work of these three visionary leaders, Milton Hershey, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs. It didn't just reveal their traits, it formed their skills, and those skills shaped their destiny. So this episode is about wonder through work. The idea that when you commit yourself to a craft deeply enough, consistently enough, passionately enough, something awakens in you. That talent alone can never unlock. All right, you ready? All right, let's go. But before we dive into the stories, I want to ask you a question, and this one might surprise you. What was the first thing you ever became good at? I want you to think about it. Not perfect, not world class. Just good. Was it drawing? Was it fixing things? Telling stories? Maybe it was explaining some concepts. Maybe it was organizing. Maybe you were really good at playing an instrument. Sports. Baking, caring for others, maybe quietly solving problems. If you're a writer, maybe you're a designer, maybe you negotiated your way out of trouble, or maybe working hard without being asked whatever that thing was.

[00:03:43]
 It matters more than you know, because that early goodness is how your skills began forming. You see where traits are, natural skills require effort. Traits are instinctive skills they require practice. Traits are gifts, skills well regret. My friend. Every visionary leader, Hershey, Disney, and jobs included, became who they became. Not because they were born exceptional, but because they worked exceptionally. Lemme prove it to you. Let's go back to Milton Hershey, the quiet kid, the listener, the observer. Here's what most people never understand about Milton Hershey. For those who have gone back to research, he didn't build an empire because he had a good idea. He built an empire because he mastered a craft. Let me bring you into that confection shop. I want you to picture it. You can almost smell the caramel. Steam rising from those copper kettles, sugar bubbling wood floors, creaking hands, sticky heat radiating from every corner. This wasn't glamorous, wasn't romantic, it wasn't even visionary.

[00:05:04]
 Just work. It was hard work, and Milton Hershey loved it. I'm gonna show you why. Milton developed unbelievably sharp precision, not because someone trained him in a classroom, but because he had refused to do things halfway. You see, he learned temperature, timing, texture ratios, consistency, process, customer taste over and over and over. You see, precision is a skill, a hard-earned skill, and it can't be faked. You see there's that skill, and then the next skill is one that no one talks about. Milton Hershey didn't just make candy. He watched people eat it. He studied the reactions. He learned what delighted them, what disappointed them. He refined based on real world feedback. You see, observation is another skill. That's leadership derived and one of the most powerful there is on another skill, endurance; those early failures in Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, that was the training ground for endurance. You don't get endurance by reading about it. You get endurance by working through it and then yet another skill systems building.

[00:06:36]
 By the time Hershey built his chocolate company, he wasn't trying ideas. He was applying skills forged through labor. He began to understand these supply chains, production flow, market timing, resource allocation, scaling processes, consistency at volume to you see what's happening here. Traits pointed him. Skills elevated him. You see traits say, I'm wired for this skills, say I can execute this. Traits, whisper possibilities, skills, deliver outcomes. You see, this is the hallmark of skill development in Hershey. Now, I want to transition with you to Disney because if Hershey learned precision, Walt learned expression through the same kind of work. Lemme ask you something. Have you ever been around someone who was so creative that it almost felt like their imagination had gravity? That was Walt, but I want you listen carefully. Creativity alone didn't make him the Walt Disney. It was ours and ours. And hours and hours and hours of drawing, observing, sketching, animating, failing, and trying again.

[00:07:54]
 That's what built a skill. I wanna show you how his skills formed and, and, and walk with me, because Walt, he drew constantly, no surprise. Not because he had to, but because he couldn't stop. You see, he didn't wait for inspiration. He built skill through repetition. He sharpened the line. The proportion, the motion, the expression, the storytelling, the humor. Emotion through art. You see, this wasn't talent anymore. It was craftsmanship. And then he refined this skill of storytelling, man. As Walt developed his art, he developed something deeper, the ability to share and draw people in. He learned the idea of structuring your story, pacing, timing, especially with comedy and emotion. How to develop these characters. You see, he studied what made people smile. He learned to speak to the heart, not just the eye. And then couple that with this idea of innovation through frustration, every time he had a limitation, technical, financial, he innovated. He didn't say, we can't. He said there has to be a way.

[00:09:11]
 Hey, friend, it's your friend, Dr. Nate Salah. If you've ever wondered how your leadership style reflects Jesus or how it could, I've got something just for you. It's called the incarnation instrument, and it's a powerful self-assessment we created to help you discover your biblical identity, your leadership profile through the lens of Christ. It's practical, it's insightful, and it's completely free for our pie. Podcast community. Just head to biblicalidentity.com to take yours today. That's biblical identity.com and find out how you lead and how you can lead wholly. Innovation is a skill friend. It's a skill formed under pressure. You see, these are some of the skills Walt had but didn't end there. Scott, he has so many more skills, including leadership through vision. As Walt's skills pro progressed and his projects grew, he learned to communicate, to persuade, to rally people around a dream. He learned how to pitch ideas, defend them, take creative risks, collaborate, inspire teams. These aren't traits.

[00:10:26]
 They're hard-earned leadership skills, and Walt turned wonder into work and work into wonder. Finally, I wanna talk a little bit about Steve Jobs because his story shows us something so powerful. It's almost startling. You know, job had traits, intensity, curiosity. He had idealism, but his skills, oh, there's something else. I wanna walk you through them. One of the skills. That is remarkable. Design literacy jobs wasn't a designer by trade. He became one by obsession. He studied calligraphy, he studied architecture, he studied product curves, color palettes, studied negative spaces, typography, proportion balance. You see, this wasn't classroom learning, it was immersion. You see, design literacy was a skill through his trained eye. You know, you might not think of this as a skill, but I would put in the skill category simplification. Simplification is one of the hardest skills in the world. The jobs mastered a reduction of, of variables, clarity, focus, elimination of unnecessary things, and in essence, driving toward that.

[00:11:50]
 You see, it takes more than skill to make something simple. It takes something skillful to make it less complex. And communication is a skill. Oh, this one's huge. Jobs. Learned how to communicate vision with intensity, with clarity, with persuasion, with story, with emotion. And this wasn't natural. It was practiced. And I wonder how many people would think that integration was a skill to integrate hardware, software, design, engineering, use behavior. That's a skill a handful of people can develop. Jobs, learn to synthesize, to bring pieces together into a whole mastery, not talent mastery. You see, it's important to understand so that we can pull this back to us. I wanna ask you something in light of what we just shared. What is the work that formed your skill? Not your job, not your title, your skill. Why don't you think about what did you work at? Practice, repeat, refine, fail at return to stick with. Grow in, get better at without even realizing how much it would shape your future. Because here's the truth, most people miss this. Your purpose grows through the skills you practice long before you understand why. Skills are like scaffolding for purpose. Every time you repeated something, every time you worked hard, every time you got up again, you were building a skill scaffold. And when traits and skills stack on top of each other, well, that's where leadership emerges.

[00:13:29]
 You see, traits are identity, skills are capacity. Traits are direction, skills are depth traits. They whisper skills, shout traits, pull you. Skills. They push you and see the combination, it's destiny. I want you to reflect with me, not casually, but intentionally. I want you to ask yourself, what was the work that taught you endurance? Think about that for a moment. For me, I learned how to craft endurance through endurance sports. I did triathlon and marathon, and it galvanized me to too. Work hard and, and, and not give up after running swimming, and biking. Well, of course, it would be swimming, biking, and running in a triathlon for hours and hours and hours. I developed endurance. What was the work that taught you Precision? For me, precision was developed through all the accounting work I did over those many years, and becoming precise in my understanding and my decision making. What was the work that taught you Communication always loved to communicate Well, the work that I learned most in communicating effectively was first reading.

[00:14:55]
 Learning to read and digest copious amounts of written work was helpful in communication. And then speaking and listening to myself speak. My son would always say that, Oh dad, you listen to yourself too much. It was a way to hone and to continue to develop my communication skills. How about creativity? What was the work that caught taught you? Creativity. For me, I used to love to write poetry. And short stories that were, uh, fictional. Oh, it was help, helped me so much in my creative side and course drawing as well. What was the work that taught you empathy? Hmm. Well, I would say for me, empathy came largely from walking with people through their own struggles. How about leadership? What was the work that taught you Leadership for me. And failing over and over again as a leader and learning through the education and through just staying in the trenches with my teams. See friend, you didn't gain, gain these skills wherever they came from by accident. If you trace your skills back to their origins, you'll discover.

[00:16:10]
 There was a moment, a season, a job, a hobby, a responsibility, a failure, some kind of a challenge where something was being formed, and that formation wasn't random. You see, it was preparation. In fact, my world growing up in a home full of pressure, conflict, and stability, I didn't realize it then, but I was developing skills all the time. The skills of reading emotion, of diffusing tension of responsibility. That endurance I talked about. Definitely adaptability, really just learning early, deeply, quickly. Learning how to think strategically solve problems. Nobody else could at the time, 'cause I had no one around me to help, and maybe just a skill of caring fiercely. These weren't traits, they were just skills forged through pressure and their skills that. I use every single day as a leader today, as a mentor, as an advisor, as a father, as a husband, as an entrepreneur, as a teacher. And I want you to hear this next line because it might rewrite part of your story. Sometimes the work that forms your skills is the work you never would've chosen, but it still formed you, and that formation is sacred. Alright? Here's a big idea. Traits reveal who you are, skills, shape who you become, and purpose emerges where the two intersect. That's the formula. Traits plus skills equals leadership capacity.

[00:17:42]
 Or if I say it another way, traits give you the raw material skills, refine the material. Purpose reveals the design. And if I'm gonna ask something bold, I'm gonna ask you this. What's the skill you've been avoiding? Seriously, every leader has one. Communication, conflict, delegation, planning, discipline, courage, creativity. Maybe it's financial literacy, technical mastery, emotional regulation. Hello. Maybe it's boundaries, maybe it's consistency. Which one of you been brushing aside? Because here's the truth, the skill you avoid is often the skill that unlocks the next level of your leadership. So this week, I want you to reflect on these five questions. One, what skills have my experiences forged in me? Listen them, don't downplay them. Take some time. What work has sharpened me more than anything else? Look for some patterns that have developed, like in my book. Which skills do I need to develop right now, and be honest with yourself. Or what skill is currently capping my potential, there is always one or more.

[00:19:00]
 And lastly, which skill if mastered, would transform my leadership? Friend, what's your next assignment? Let me leave you at this. You are not the product of your past. You are the product of your formation traits, planted the seeds skills, cultivated the seeds purpose. So next week in episode four, we're gonna shift to something special that spark that hidden flame. The imagination and curiosity that ignite vision, and it's one of my. Favorite of the chapters in this book. Can't wait to see you then. I'm Dr. Nate Salah, and this is a Call to Leadership. Thank you so much for supporting this program. I'd like to pray for you for just a moment. That God realigns the heart away from pressure, pride, performance back to his presence. Let us grow in God's wisdom. Let us give from our overflow, and let us go love radically in every place God sends us. Make us holy Lord, set us apart, not just successful, but surrendered. In Jesus' name, Amen.