On any given weekend in a million backyards, parking lots, empty fields and sun-baked pastures they gather to worship at the altar of the remarkable, unusual and cheap. Antique hunters, both self-proclaimed and by profession; full-time mechanics and the shade-tree version of handy-with-a-wrench, roam the aisles for bargains, for treasure, for great deals and the “once-in-a-lifetime” sale.

Fleamarkets. Yardsales. Thrift sales. We’ve all been. And the thing I find fascinating is that with all the experts, all the collectors, all the people with the mind set that, “I might find a real treasure” - that so much treasure goes undiscovered. Not only that, much of what is true treasure goes home with people who hold priceless artifacts in their hands who bought it not out of knowledge, but because “it looked interesting.”

And so that multi-million dollar painting or that rare Ming vase will sit on a shelf, gather dust in an attic or be recycled back to another yardsale…as was the case of a rock quite a few years ago. (I apologize…I’ve searched for the news story but can’t find it to get all the details so I’m relying on memory…)

But the gist of it was a geologist stopped into a flea market and was looking around when he spotted a large rock in a shoebox. The sign said, $5. He told reporters later that his hands shook as he took the money out of his wallet and dug for a $5 bill.

“$5?” he asked the gentleman sweating in the folding chair behind the table.

“Yes,” the man apologized, “I know that’s a lot for a rock, but it’s an unusual rock.”

Unusual indeed. It turned out to be the largest blue sapphire in the world worth more like $5 million dollars. Yet the rock COLLECTOR didn’t know what he had. The GEOLOGIST did.

Somewhere in a small fishing village years ago villagers were angered when a dock worker stopped fisherman from cutting up an unusual catch. The worker, a college student, was working to become a marine biologist, making good money working summers at a fishing dock to earn tuition. He was quick to recognize a squid unloaded by a fishing vessel was one of the rarest and largest of a certain species. He stopped fishermen from chopping it up for fish bait and/or calamari and called a university with a Marine Biology program and saved the creature . To the fishermen it was a week’s pay. To scientists it was a priceless discovery.

Just last year a man had a childhood toy appraised only to find it was a million dollar artifact his archeologist grandfather had given him years ago. It languished in a shoe box under his bed for decades and was probably destined for a flea market as well until a an expert appraised it. Odd isn’t it? That there are so many ordinary things with extraordinary value all around us. And we fail to spot it.

Every day one of us tells ourselves, “I am remarkable. I am different, unique and good. Why doesn’t anyone notice?” Because my friends, we live in a world of rock collectors and dock workers, not geologists and marine biologists.

I have, on the one hand, a client who was thrilled to get my services for $150 an hour today. On the other - another client is screaming that I am charging $50 for a project I committed to months ago out of fear my rent wouldn’t get paid if I didn’t. Rock collector? Geologist? Dock worker or Biologist?

I ask, when we meet people what do we see? The “odd looking rock,” or the uncut sapphire within? We are all clamouring to be remarkable, to be purple, to stand out…but as I wander this country I see cities full of uncut gems, odd rocks, rare squids…. There are the polished garnets who want to be diamonds and the diamonds who think they’re only garnets. There is talent here I wouldn’t recognize if it bit me. I’m no better than the worst rock collector. But I do know to listen to my gut and to trust my intuition and if something or someone seems “interesting,” I go with it. I move in to take a better look.

But it doesn’t matter how remarkable or valuable you or your product/service is if you’re no more than an “interesting rock.” The world, sadly enough, is filled with rock collectors - not geologists. So how do we move beyond that?

If your sense of worth comes from the value the dock workers and the rock collectors place on you…it’s hard to believe you can “do better.”

We too easily dismiss the “odd,” or the “unusual” and go on in search of the cut diamond ourselves, yet we expect others to see our potential. I marvel at these stories every time I read them - stories of discovery but really more stories of rescue. We have a chance to be geologists and Marine biologists by spotting the rareness in each other here. I hope you all take time to stop and really look at the “odd,” or the offbeat or the quiet ones….the “rocks” and squids and what looks for all the world like a battered toy.