To get anything of magnitude done, whether its in business, politics, the arts, education, or your personal life, it helps if youre fueled by conviction and by passion.

You should be convinced what youre doing is the right thing, and your level of conviction should be exceedingly high, approaching the fervor of a zealot, at times.

For example, lets say youre a trainer, and by this term I include consultants, coaches, teachers, managers, and business owners. Youre trying to instruct people in the art of selling or in making effective presentations and speeches.

How can you accomplish this task, of literally changing peoples lives, without being an advocate for what youre doing?

Take public speaking. What do you have to endorse, at least informally or tacitly to be a great instructor?

(1) Anyone can improve with training, and most can improve, substantially.

(2) By improving, great value will be added to peoples lives.

(3) By improving, society at large will be enhanced because more people will vigorously participate in public debate and in matters of State, resulting in a more representative and more democratic leadership and society.

(4) By improving, greater understanding between people will be accomplished, resulting in trust and the expansion of trade, commerce, and career opportunities.

(5) By failing to improve peoples skills, we prevent them from expressing and safeguarding their interests and those of people who need their help. We also make them inviting targets for those who would exploit their timidity and lack of skill in expression.

When these factors are considered, the public speaking or sales trainer becomes very important, indeed. He could mean the difference between profits and losses, between employment and joblessness, and between upward social mobility or permanent fixation in near poverty.

In other words, a lot is on the line when teachers teach, and trainers train.

Theyre not merely imparting information, in the same way that a superb musician is not simply struggling to play notes in a given sequence.

Their tools are certainly in the realm of the here and now, but their motivations and achievements in transforming people are nothing less than transcendental.

When you ask most salespeople what informs their success, many will say Believing in my product.

Theyre undoubtedly right; you need to be convinced a product will do what it claims to do. But to really rise to the top, you need to also appreciate that what youre selling will change peoples lives for the better, and focusing on that, advocating that, will make you that much more effective.

Tapping into conviction as a trainer, a teacher, a salesperson or as a speaker, then earns you the adjective, gifted.