Why You Should Re-architect Your Career to Amplify Your Strengths

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Even B.A. Barracus (CHECK SPELLING) didn’t like to fly. Most of us never take the time to figure out the difference in ourselves, and even if we did we probably wouldn’t know what to do with that information.

You’ve probably heard that you need to identify weaknesses so you can improve upon them. After all, if you’re already strong in an area there’s no need to hone that skill, right? You should focus on your weaknesses so people don’t point and laugh at you when you try to…do whatever it is you’re weak at.

But I’ve found that this is a recipe for mediocrity.

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BECOMING WORLD CLASS
People who become world class at something begin with a strength in that area.

I would argue that Tiger Woods had some kind of pre-disposition to be a decent golfer. Paul McCartney had some kind of innate musical talent before he picked up a guitar, Yo-Yo Ma was likely a tiny bit better playing stringed instruments than his classmates, and Albert Einstein had something unique about his brain chemisty before he ever thought about the cosmos.

But these strengths take time to develop. To become world-class (or to take it one step beyond and re-define that term in your field) you have to invest thousands of hours of focused practice into that strength. This is known in psychology as the ten thousand hour rule, and Malcom Gladwell ruined it for the rest of us by beating this idea to death in his book Outliers (LINK HERE).

But the idea is that you need something on the order of 10,000 hours of focused practice to master something like the cello, golf, songwriting, or theoretical physics.

BECOMING MEDIOCRE
Perhaps Tiger Woods is particularly deficient in the skills needed to properly operate a motor vehicle. I don’t know this to be true, let’s just suppose for the sake of argument.

Suppose that when Tiger were young instead of spending hour upon hour on the golf course practicing his drive that he had instead focused on learning the skills necessary to drive a car. He practiced steering, using the gas pedal, shifting, etc… all with the hope of becoming a Forumla One driver.

He would have become a better driver, but it’s almost certain that he would never have become world class at an activity where he has a particular weakness.

Instead of becoming a world class golfer he would have become a second rate driver instead of a household name.

By focusing on something where he already had an innate strength (or innate passion) he was able to become one of the best golfers of all time. Such is the story with McCartner, Einstein, and Yo-Yo Ma.

HIGH SCHOOL VS TRACK
In high school I played football because that’s what the popular kids did, but I wasn’t particularly suited for it. I was 5’11”, 115 lbs. as a freshman and although I was a good distance runner I had no quickness in short sprints.

But I worked my butt of at becoming a good football player. Every Saturday my dad would take us down to a park and run routes, practice diving, do speed drills…things that none of my teammates were doing on the weekends.

And I got better. But I was never, and could never have been, great. The skills required for football were particularly lacking in me, and although I was able to improve through literally hundreds of hours of practice, I was never as good as the best receivers in the league.

I was good enough to start every game for two years before an injury forced me to leave the sport, but I never made the phenom catches or the great runs. Those were reserved for people who had strengths in the areas necessary to be great receivers.

Now the track was another story. With my height I was particularly well-suited for the long hurdles and winning races became almost second nature. I worked at it, but the improvements were dramatic as I invested time into running.

I exceled at it from the start and ended up setting a school record, winning my league, and going to the state championships. A far cry from my mediocre performance on the gridiron.

And I’ve always wondered how much better I could have been on the track had I never played football, and instead invested that time into becoming a better runner.

MY EXAMPLE
Let’s translate this to being a software developer / entrepreneur.

Most people have no idea about their strengths and weaknesses. So that’s the first step – learning what they are.

And secondly, when most people find out they have a weakness in an area they want to work to improve it.

“Oh my gosh, I’m a terrible public speaker…I need to become better at it!”

But this is the polar opposite, 180 degrees off, wrong way to approach it.

Instead, figure out your strengths and re-configure your career to amplify and build on them. Avoid any position that requires a lot of public speaking, but instead take that job (or start your own company) where you do a lot of solo coding (if that’s what you’re good at). Some people excel at not needing social interaction and being extremely productive on their own.

ONE APPROACH TO FINDING YOUR STRENGTHS
About four years ago I read the book StrengthsFinder 2.0, which argues the above premise to follow your strengths (Note: I held that opinion before reading the book but it solidified the idea in my mind). In the book there is an online test to find out your strengths, which I took.

Among my “themes” (aka strengths) are:

Learner – People strong in the Learner theme have a great desire to learn and want to continuously improve. In particular, the process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites them.

Maximizer – People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.

And I’ve found that anytime in my career where things grow stagnant, I become unsettled and move on pretty quickly. Things have to be moving and I have to be learning or I die of boredome within months. I jumped from several jobs due to maintenance coding.

In addition, I have a tough time working on large teams due to the maximizer in me. I hold myself to a high standard in pretty much anything I do, and I often wind up holding other people to that standard, as well.

I found out quickly that when other team members weren’t totally invested in a project and giving it everything they had for the project’s success, that I didn’t take that well. As a result, nearly every team I worked on greater than 3 people (whether as a developer or a maneger) was a bust for me. I hated it and wound up either pissing people off, or quitting the job. We couldn’t find enough top-notch people to keep me happy.

But this has lead to my current position of a Micropreneur. Now I work alone, or with a hand-picked business partner (Jeremy with DotNetInvoice and Mike Taber with the Micropreneur Academy). We work very well together because all of us are entrepreneurs and they hold themselves to as high a standard as I do myself.

This didn’t happen by accident. I didn’t stumble on to Micropreneurship and realize “Oh my gosh, Micropreneurship, you had me at Hello!”

No, it was a deliberate move on my part to amplify my strengths.

I do my best work, perhaps 5x better than in other circumstances, when I’m continually challenged and learning rather than bored.

I do my best work when I work alone or with someone who’s doing top-notch work.

But given that, I also have many weaknesses). Weaknesses that mean I’ll never do some of the things I dreamt of in college (being the CEO of a startup, for example).

But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve found what caters to my strengths, and I’ve begun to improve on these strengths and amplify them.

NOW BACK TO YOU
Most people, and developers in particular, are unhappy with their jobs. And I conjecture that at least part of that is becasuse you’re doing something that requires you to utilize a weakness and doesn’t amplify your strengths.

If you’re not a good public speaker and you don’t enjoy it, don’t take a position as a sales person.

If you’re not a good writer and don’t enjoy it, don’t start a blog and expect to get anywhwre with it.

It’s not only more productive to capitalize on your strengths, it’s way more fun. You’re good at it from the start; probably better than most people. So you will experience a lot of victory in that area. This will also likely mean that the activity is enjoyable for you from the start.

So what can you do? Spend $X to buy StrengthsFinder 2.0 (or any other book that helps you find your strengths – this one isn’t magic; it just happens to be the one I’ve used).

Take the test and figure out your strengths.

Consider making a change in your career path.

It may mean you need to change jobs. You may need to do something rash like start a startup or start building apps on the side and become a Micropreneur. Or you may be amazingly lucky and your current situation is already making you extremely happy (and ask yourself if it’s because it’s amplifying your strengths so you know how to find this optimal situation in the future should things change).

But whatever you do, don’t focus on improving a weakness. That approach will leave you forever swimming in a sea of mediocrity and unhappiness.