What If You Focused on Your Weaknesses Instead?
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami.
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You’ve probably come across that quote. I didn’t even know the original author until today. I may forget again tomorrow. That’s one of my weaknesses; I forget things.
In a way, my brain decides what is essential and leaves out the rest. I have a hard time memorizing things, and my default answer is almost always “I don’t know?”
Alexa…where’s my phone?
The quote, though, is worth reiterating.
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami.
We can expand this to general advice. Suppose you only listen to the advice that everyone is listening to. In that case, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
When it comes to focusing on your strengths and forgetting about your weakness, most people would agree that it’s the best part. Gary Vaynerchuk — who I hope you meet one day — has said this multiple times in many ways: Know yourself, focus on what you’re good at. Focus on your “strengths.”
I agree with that view when it comes to things like content creation and even career paths. When you get very good at something you already have talent in, you can become unstoppable.
When I use the word “weakness” here, I mean character/personality flaws we’re aware of that hinder our general progress. Things like my memory above, or not being good with numbers, or being impatient with life.
I firmly believe it’s okay to work hard on your weaknesses.
Worst case scenario, you get a little better. You leave from not being able to remember anyone’s phone number to remembering their first names. That’s some significant improvement!
Best case? They become your strength. You become the person who can connect two people who have a lot in common. You become a super-connector like James Altucher would say.
