Making your weaknesses your strengths

I was meeting with an entrepreneur recently and we were talking about tv shows, and he shared with me that because he has an addictive personality, he is very thoughtful about when he watches a tv show. For instance, if he started watching The Wire (on his list, and it should be on yours!), he wouldn’t start on a Monday night because he’d have trouble not binging on it all week long.

Instead, he uses his addictive personality to his advantage by focusing on his business and channeling that energy toward building his company. Brilliant.

I do a similar thing with one of my biggest weaknesses: my memory. I have a terrible, terrible memory. Not the kind where I forget someone’s name after meeting them – everyone seems to struggle there – but I could have a conversation with someone and then two weeks later have absolutely zero recollection of that discussion.

To overcome this, I’ve begun relying more and more on Evernote as my digital memory, storying anything and everything there. By doing this, I actually end up having a better memory than I would otherwise. For instance, if I’m meeting with someone and I quickly check Evernote before the meeting, I will be able to read – and then remember – a conversation that I had with them several years before. Even with a decent memory, it would have been hard to remember that far back.

We all have things that we struggle with, but the real trick is to take those weaknesses and flip them into being newfound strengths.