Quora: How the Most Successful People Deal With Their Weaknesses
Is it better to focus on your strengths or on your weaknesses? originally appeared on Quora – the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights.
Answer by Max Lukominskyi, CMO at Sliceplanner, on Quora:
Know your strengths. Improve them. Forget your weaknesses. Leave them.
Usually, people are so keen on being concerned with and complaining about their weaknesses that they barely remember what their strengths are.
They often switch from one activity to another, trying to get knowledge in as many spheres as possible and become all-around talents. They gather tiny bits of information in every single environment instead of concentrating on some particular one. Consequently, there is no commitment and dedication at all.
Distraction is probably one of the worst enemies of young entrepreneurs and beginners of different spheres. Staying focused and dedicated is crucial if you want to excel in your field.
As soon as your interests are formed, you learned the lesson about what you are good at and what you are not so good at. Plus, you can easily distinguish your strengths from weaknesses, it is time to choose what to focus on.
Embrace the truth. You suck at plenty of things. Nonetheless, the good thing is that you are allowed to do that. It’s alright to suck at some things. You cannot be a great expert in truly everything. Moreover, you do not need to be.
There are things you are not suited to. You can constantly suck at them. And this is perfectly fine. You can be a terrible cook, singer, programmer, writer or actor. And it does not matter as long as you are a great expert or at least a good specialist in some other field.
Have you ever seen Warren Buffet taking part in cooking battles? Have you ever noticed Bill Gates struggling in auditions of dancing show? Have you ever heard of Elon Musk taking singing lessons?
Most likely, no.
We know those people as the most successful and prominent ones in their spheres. They are brilliant entrepreneurs, investors, speakers, innovators. Nonetheless, they stay mediocre or suck at plenty of other things. Who the heck cares about their dancing and cooking skills? Whereas we are completely fascinated by their approach to the business and incredible accomplishments.
These people are geniuses. We appreciate their wisdom. We love their stories of success. We are excited with their strengths. Meanwhile, we do not care about their weaknesses. Neither do they!
This is the mindset you should adopt as well.
The secret of success is way easier than it is believed to be. Everything boils down to committed and consistent enhancement of one`s strengths.
Forget about your weaknesses. Improve your strengths.
Do not waste your most precious asset, namely time, trying to get rid of your weaknesses. Invest it in the improvement of your strengths instead. Channel all your effort and energy in the enhancement of your most powerful skills and valuable expertise.
One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence
— Peter Drucker
Enhance the skills you are already good at. Improve your knowledge in the spheres you already know sufficiently a lot about. Become a great specialist. Become an expert in the field that suits you.
Set yourself up for success. Do not spend time on things that you are not good at. Focus on the one thing that will have the biggest impact.
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