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Secrets to Success
Deborah Cole Micek |
Focus on your strengths,
not weaknesses
UNFORTUNATELY, most of us don't have an accurate assessment as to what our real talents and strengths are, much less the ability to mold our lives and businesses around them. Instead we have our beliefs molded for us through guidance from our parents, our teachers, and by professionals who have a fascination with pathology.
What do I mean by that?
These people may be well meaning in their intentions to guide, educate, and diagnose. But very often what happens is that they cause the average person to go through life with their greatest strengths lying dormant.
That's because their sole job is to "teach" and "improve" you; therefore, they're actively looking for weak areas in order to point them out to you so you can improve them.
Unfortunately, this causes many of us to become experts in our weaknesses with a natural tendency to spend our lives trying to repair these flaws because of our insecurity around them.
Teachers and parents also come with a natural bias for their students and children. All they know is what the "norm" and "standard" is, compared to others. A teacher's goal is to get you to comply and "fit in" because that's been the model of success for previous generations of their students.
Rarely has any ingenuity or big ideas come from adhering to "the norm" or "the standard". Yet that's the mold they're trying to fit you into.
That, my friend, is an absolute crime because it leaves many of your unique talents and gifts neglected and un-optimized. All because you're focused on what you need to "fix" rather than what you need to "expand upon" and "develop."
While this type of situation can mean a passionless, empty life for the average working person, it will very often mean stress, financial hardship and even business failure to an entrepreneur.
The stakes are higher and there is more at risk than your ego or personal fulfillment when you're the owner of a business.
» Your family counts on you.
» Your employees and their families count on you.
Ignore it or fail to constantly and never-endingly improve upon your own performance and this lack of attention will eventually be evident in your bottom line.
Understanding your own natural style is the first key to creating your ultimate business. Know what your strengths are, and have the confidence to pursue your "crazy ideas" when you see the vision of carrying them out, and you'll be amazed at how quickly success follows.