What’s Your Superpower?
Two weeks off with my family reminded me of something simple.
When you walk away from routine, you start seeing the obvious.
I try to be a present dad all year, but vacations force the issue: less Wi-Fi, fewer notifications, no work. So I start noticing things...
My daughters, Greta and Mia, run on pure courage.
Greta is obsessed with horses.
No real horse? No problem. A broomstick turns into the next stallion, and off she gallops through the beach.
Back and forth, back and forth.
She never pauses to ask, "Is this silly?". "Do I need a real horse to do this"?
Mia - instead - is preparing for her first competitive gymnastics season.
This summer, she set a goal: five straight-body handstands ("verticale di impostazione"). Day one, she hit zero.
Day seven, she nailed all five - each one rock-solid.
Any adult would have said, "Impossible."
Mia just kept flipping upside down, every day, trying and trying.
Is that a superpower? Sure it is!
Greta and Mia have both, like many kids, the superpower of being fearless and chasing their dreams. No matter what.
Play to Your Strengths
At work, I try to copy that mindset.
Inscaler works because I lean into what I'm great at - building scrappy, early-stage sales teams.
Big-company playbooks never fit me. Startups did.
I still remember LinkedIn's carpeted halls in Dublin and the endless "think outside the box" posters.
They claimed to love new ideas, but they mostly loved their own.
I was good, not great, at reading from that script. I didn't fit in the corporate playbook much.
The startup world opened the door and said, "Write your playbook, Matteo".
In 2023, I didn't even know the word "fractional." But something was clear: founders need sales leadership but can't afford a full-timer.
They buy a fraction of you instead.
I tried it, and Inscaler was born.
Three weeks later, I'd closed €30K in projects - five calls, three wins.
That kind of lift told me I'd found my lane.
Find your lane, swim your race. (Do you remember the movie "The Swimmers"?).
Early Signs You've Found Yours
Everybody has superpowers, but how do we find out which ones we have?
Low friction: The work feels like play.
Quick wins: You see traction faster than expected.
Blurred lines: "Work-life balance" stops being a fight because both feel like life.
Energy spread: Friends notice you're lighter and ask what changed.
A 3-Step Scan for Your Superpower
List your "too-easy" talents. What feels obvious to you but hard to others?
Run a micro-test. Offer that talent to one person or project for free or at a discount. Measure the impact.
I helped five startups for free, building and scaling their sales teams before launching Inscaler.
Repeat until something clicks with almost no resistance. That's the sweet spot.
Final Thought
If you took a break from work anytime this August, let the quiet reveal your superpower.
It may live in a childhood hobby, a side project, or the part of your job you do on autopilot.
Name it, nurture it, and ignore the grown-up voice whispering, "Be realistic."
When you find your superpower, share it with the world - we could all use more people doing what they're built to do.
Thanks for reading this far, see you all next week.
