What’s the Economic Cost of Never Discovering What You’re Good At?
What’s the Economic Cost of Never Discovering What You’re Good At? Never discovering what you are unusually good at can create economic losses through lower earnings, missed skill development, weaker allocation of talent, and productive opportunities that never become visible. The total cost cannot be calculated directly. Economists can compare wages, occupations, measured skills, and productivity, but they cannot observe the businesses people never started, professions they never considered, or abilities they never had the opportunity to demonstrate. Research on skills mismatch provides a partial view of the problem. It shows what can happen when people possess measurable capabilities that their work does not fully use. Having Ability and Using Ability Are Different Consider two workers with similar intelligence, education, and motivation. One discovers a strong ability to understand people, negotiate agreements, and build relationships. They enter business development and spend years...