In this manifesto, David Randall tells readers how they should identify, confront, and utilize their individual strengths and weaknesses. Three of his points that I enjoyed the most were;
3. There is nothing wrong with you (“All strengths have corresponding weaknesses.)
I like this point because I see this in a lot of people. I don’t see it so much in myself, but I’m sure it’s there. It’s the idea that for every positive attribute that a person has, if it is taken to the extreme, it can become a negative attribute. In theater I saw it a lot with people who were confident enough to get roles and be praised for their performances, yet often that confidence would give way to arrogance and diva-like attitudes. In myself, I always tried to be humble and not flaunt myself and my strengths as an actor, but I believe this attitude meant that my abilities were not recognized as widely and my roles were often supporting ones rather than leads.
8. Freak: The Power of Uniqueness (“People pay for things that are unusual.”)
I think the reason that a lot of people shy away from being unique is because it’s not something that’s really rewarded all that often in our personal lives. People don’t always flock to other people who are “freaks” because we like to spend time with people who are more like ourselves. But in our professional lives, uniqueness is extremely important because it’s profitable. People don’t pay for things that are normal. Why would they? If it’s something normal then they can find it anywhere. People may not hang out with “freaks” but they certainly pay for their ideas.
9(2) Engage in permanent procrastination
Procrastination is when you don’t do something until the last minute, much like this blog. When we do this, we often don’t do a very good job, and as Randall points out, people don’t pay for mediocrity. But if you don’t do the thing you don’t want to do at all, then ostensibly you will be focusing more attention on doing things that you actually enjoy doing, and enjoyable work is often better than work done begrudgingly. As such, we can think of permanent procrastination as allowing us to accomplish something of value rather than completing something for the sake of having completed it.
As for my own strengths and weaknesses, I think they’re pretty obvious. I have a lot of ideas in my head, but I don’t have the organization or the motivation to act on a lot, if not most of them. Randall’s manifesto contends that I cannot hope to change my lack of motivation anytime soon, but I can surround myself with people whose strengths counter my weaknesses. I can utilize my creative abilities by finding people who have the motivation to make my ideas become reality.
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