I am probably not the man anyone would point to as the great model of worldly success.
Nobody is looking at my bank balance and saying, “Now there’s the guy I need to imitate.” I have made mistakes. I have missed opportunities. I have failed at things I should have handled better. So if the question is asking for a guaranteed formula to become rich, powerful, admired and perfectly put together, I’m not your guy.
But if the question is asking for the best life advice I know, then I do have an answer.
Make the most of what you have been given.
That idea comes straight from the Bible, from the parable of the talents. In the story, a master entrusts different amounts of money to different servants. One gets five talents. One gets two. One gets one. The point is not that they all received the same thing. They didn’t. The point is what each one did with what he had.
The servants who were faithful with what they had been given were entrusted with more. The servant who buried his talent out of fear lost even the little he had.
That has always struck me as one of the clearest pictures of success I know.
Success is not always having the most. Success is not always being the most gifted, the most visible, the most praised or the most naturally talented person in the room. Sometimes success is taking the one talent you have been given and making it shine. Sometimes it is doing something excellent with a small opportunity. Sometimes it is proving trustworthy in a place nobody else thinks is very important.
And sometimes, when you do that well, people notice.
I have seen both sides of this play out in my own life. I have seen what happens when people squander what they have been given. They waste opportunities. They treat responsibility lightly. They prove they cannot be trusted, then seem surprised when no one wants to hand them more.
But I have also seen the other side. I have seen people take what was placed in their hands and do more with it than anyone expected. They show up. They work hard. They care about the details. They prove faithful with the small thing, and suddenly the small thing is not so small anymore.
I am seeing that in Daryl’s life right now. She has done a great job at work, and because of that, she has been trusted with more responsibility. That is not an accident. That is the way trust works. People tend to give more responsibility to the people who have already shown they can handle responsibility.
I see the same thing in my classroom.
Students are sometimes blown away when they see me trust certain students to do certain things while I won’t trust others to do much of anything. They may think I’m playing favorites. I’m not. There is a reason.
The students I trust have proven I can trust them.
The students I don’t trust have proven I can’t.
That may sound harsh, but it is also life. If I ask a student to take something to the office, run an errand, help with equipment, work independently or handle a responsibility without constant supervision, it is because that student has already shown me something. He or she has shown maturity, honesty, effort or reliability.
On the other hand, if a student has repeatedly shown that every unsupervised moment becomes an opportunity to wander, waste time, cause trouble or avoid work, I would be foolish to hand that student more responsibility.
That is not punishment. That is stewardship.
Trust grows when it is handled well. Trust shrinks when it is abused.
That principle applies far beyond school. It applies to work. It applies to marriage. It applies to friendships. It applies to money. It applies to faith. It applies to every gift, opportunity, relationship and responsibility placed in our hands.
We may not all start with the same talents. We may not all have the same resources, abilities, connections, personalities or advantages. But each of us has something.
The question is what we are doing with it.
If you have one talent, don’t spend your life complaining that someone else got five. Make that one talent shine. Grow it. Use it. Offer it. Develop it. Turn it into something beautiful and useful.
If you have five, don’t coast because you started with more. More ability means more responsibility. More opportunity means more accountability. More trust means more is expected.
That, to me, is one of the great secrets to success.
Be faithful with what is in your hands right now.
Not what you wish you had. Not what someone else has. Not what you used to have. Not what you might have someday.
What you have now.
Use it well.
Because when you squander what you have been given, people may not trust you with that much again.
But when you do something good, faithful and excellent with what you have been given, don’t be surprised when someone looks at you and says, “I think you can handle more.”
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Copyright © 2026 Doug DeBolt.
