MichaelGowin.com/blog

Tim Ferriss, author of the provocatively-titled The 4-Hour Work Week, sits in for an interview over at J.D.’s Get Rich Slowly blog.  One of Tim’s recommendations is to emphasize the things you do well and avoid spending time on things you don’t.

J.D.
One of my favorite tips in your book — I have it heavily underscored in red ink — is “emphasize your strengths, not your weaknesses”. Explain this concept. Why is it so important?

Tim
It’s very simple. If you try and fix all of your weaknesses, you will be — at best — mediocre at most things you’re inherently poor at. This is inborn talent or weakness. Progress is incremental when you attempt to fix all the chinks in the armor.

Focus on leveraging and amplifying your strengths, which allows you to multiply your results. Fix any fatal weaknesses to extent that they prevent you from reaching your goals, but perfection isn’t the path to your objectives; finding ways to cater to your strengths is. This is also, for example, how you end up documenting and showing improved results to your superiors if you need to negotiate things like remote work, flex-time, paid time off, etc.

At the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do well–and very little that you can do really well.  Spend time cultivating those things that have the greatest payback.

Tags: lifehacks, jobs

Filed under: Job Hunting by Michael