Not fumbling the football

I was talking with a friend of mine tonight and he made this analogy that I thought was really useful. He pointed out that being the most talented person on the field doesn't do you any good if you fumble the football. He was talking about this in the context of making good choices in our lives. We might be incredibly talented or have other gifts but they won't do us any good if we make bad choices in our lives - especially if we make the same bad choices over and over again. For him, so much of success in life is simply holding onto the ball. That might seem obvious but I thought it was pretty profound.