Double Down on Your Strengths
The key to having success in life, at least as far as I can tell, is not to work on your weaknesses, but rather to double down on your strengths.
Now, many people have said that before.
I watched a video by Steve Vai, the guitarist, who said the way he got to where he’s at is by ignoring his weaknesses and instead doubling down on his strength.
For me, it’s a little more nuanced.
I believe you should only work on your weakness until it’s no longer a bottleneck to your success.
How This Applies to Business
When it comes to business, there are many possible paths. You could:
Be an amazing sales organization.
Be a product-led company.
Be a marketing company.
Be a customer service company.
If you know how to build an amazing product, then doubling down on that is your strategy to win.
However, let’s say you don’t love sales.
You still need a sales mechanism so that your company’s growth isn’t stalled.
You could have the best product in the world, but if nobody’s selling it, the company stalls out.
That doesn’t mean you should pour all your energy into becoming a sales-driven company.
At least, that’s how I see it.
The 80/20 of Weaknesses
The idea is simple: work on your strengths and only put effort into your weaknesses so they no longer constrain you.
Think of it like the 80/20 principle, you do the 20% of work on your weaknesses that removes 80% (or even 90%) of the negative consequences.
For me, that meant learning to be more assertive.
Being conflict-avoidant and people-pleasing for most of my life, assertiveness didn’t come naturally.
I’m never going to be the most assertive person in the world, but I needed to learn techniques for saying “no” and standing my ground.
Just learning a few phrases, a few tactics, and practicing them went a long way.
It unlocked bottlenecks in my personal and business life.
Example: Feedback in Business
For a long time, giving feedback was a huge bottleneck in my company.
I avoided it because I believed feedback meant making someone feel their work wasn’t valued, or that they weren’t a good person. Even though it sounds silly, it was very real for me.
Through EMDR therapy, I worked on this.
I’m still not perfect, but now I’m much better at giving feedback, and it has massively opened up growth for my company.
This is what I mean by the 80/20 approach: I didn’t need to become a master of conflict. I just needed to get good enough so my weakness didn’t hold everything back.
Leverage: Why Strengths Matter More
Another way to see this is through leverage.
When I used to teach dance, I noticed something fascinating.
Some beginners took three weeks of classes and made incredible progress.
Others took the same three weeks and barely moved forward at all.
Same time, same effort, but drastically different results.
That’s leverage.
Some people had a natural inclination that allowed them to progress much faster.
It’s the same in every area of life.
If you’re naturally drawn to sales, you’ll progress faster than someone who isn’t, even if that other person works just as hard for years.
So why force yourself into an area where your return will always be low?
My Conclusion
That’s it.
Those are my thoughts.
Double down on your strengths.
Work on your weaknesses just enough so they’re no longer constraints.
That’s the path to success.
