Carving Excellence: Why Mastering Your Strengths, Not Weaknesses, Leads to Success

Most people believe that in order to be successful, they must improve their weaknesses. This is a profound mistake with seriously detrimental consequences across all aspects of your life.

Contrary to what most people believe, contrary to what social media “experts” tell you, contrary to what many managers and businesses expect from you - spending time, energy and money trying to improve your weaknesses, is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your life.

People grow faster and get ahead sooner if they develop their strengths. Think of any successful elite athlete, inventor, leader, doctor, investor… Would Arnold win all his titles if he focused on developing his knitting, plumbing or language skills? Would a great surgeon achieve his status if he focused his resources on learning gender sciences, philosophy, or humbleness?

What about you? Would you be better off if you focused development of your social skills or analytical thinking? Why?

Improving your natural strengths, skills and talents is not only faster and easier. It gives you an advantage over the other people. If you are really good at maths but struggle with painting, you will never become a better painter than someone who is naturally predisposed to it.

I have three children. They all have very different skills, preferences and personalities. Mastering their strengths comes naturally. And when they improve and work on their strengths, their weaknesses improve as well. Your value is in your mastery; in things you are not only good at, but better than anyone else.

Have you read my post on prioritisation? Every time you spend time trying to improve your weaknesses, you are not allocating resources to improving your strengths and getting ahead. Every time you focus your energy, time or money to address your weak spots, not only you will hardly make any progress, but you will also hinder the development of your strongest skills.

Nothing will drag you down more effectively than someone else telling you to focus on improving your weaknesses. Do you remember a colleague suggesting you work on your “blind spot”? Perhaps your manager has identified a weakness you should work on?

Here is the dirty truth: your “friend” is trying to get ahead and slow you down, and your boss knows that the longer you take to get ready for your new role, the longer you will stay in your current job - saving him time, money and effort to find, recruit and train someone who will need to take your place in the org-chart.

I don’t want my sons to learn how to draw, or my daughter how to kick the ball further. I want them to focus on developing their strengths. I want you to do the same.

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EXERCISE 1

Identify one thing you are naturally good at, and one that is not your strong suit, and start practicing them for the next 7 days. Observe the progress you are making.

Any skills are fine: physical (like running or swimming), mental (like writing, counting or memorising), practical (repairing, DIY, cooking), social (networking), etc.

Notice how quickly you improve each skill.

Reflect on the fact that when you are acquiring a new skills from scratch, you typically may expect to make much faster progress when compared to improving a skill where you already have some proficiency.

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Doctor, are there any side effects?

Yes, every intervention has side effects. The side effects of working on and improving your strengths are:

• Reduced level of stress and anxiety (read more)

• Increased confidence (read more)

• Significantly increased progress and development (read more)

• Increased creativity and work performance (read more)

• Increased satisfaction and sense of purpose (read more)

Seems like a no-brainer, right?

From now on, you will no longer develop your “weaknesses”. You will focus on maximising your core skills and competencies.

What is the best way to improve them even faster? Apply the principles of “Deliberate Practice”.

WTF is Deliberate Practice?