Know Your Strengths To Get Ahead As An Entrepreneur

This is the second article in a series that I wrote for Entrepreneur You can check out the first on “What you need to know when you are starting from scratch” right here

As an entrepreneur, in the early part of your journey, you are not going to be totally polished in all things, all of the time. There are going to be things you still need to learn and maybe even some things you will never learn. And you know what, often, that is totally ok.

However, there are a whole bunch of things that you simply “dominate” at. Now, I am not just saying you are “good” at those things- I’m saying there are things that you are totally awesome at, hence you “dominate” at them.

Now call it self absorbed, call it big headed, or call it what you want, but I want you to write down the things that you are just a total rock star at. It could be things that people have told you that you are great at, or you may already just know what they are.

This exercise is probably contrary to what often happens when one starts up as an entrepreneur- people start thinking about the tough world they live in, and then they start to think about their weaknesses, shortcomings and things that could potentially make their business fail.

And when we start to think about this stuff, we focus our energy on it, we make it primary, it absorbs us, and what was once a great business idea with huge potential suddenly becomes, in our own mind, flawed, before we have even started.

I have seen way too many people in business and life concentrate on their weaknesses and dedicating so much time to them that they forget what they are good at. Remember, your brand is going to win on your strengths. Of course, your shortcomings need attention and we can all always get better on them, but we are entrepreneurs- we have a million things to do, and only 24 hours in a day, so choosing where to focus your energy is key.

So, now that you have your list of what you “dominate” at, take a good look at all of them- these are your biggest strengths; you would not be where you are if they weren’t. Now, for each of your strengths, start drilling it down to figure its utility in your business. Start thinking about how it can benefit the business, how it is going to help you achieve your vision, how often you will leverage that strength, and by doing so, you start to build a business strategy that is based around what you are really, really good at. This will form the rock of your business, and it will enable you to stay focused on these awesome things and get even better at them, because when your business is in the marketplace with all those nasty competitors, we need you to be the best of the best.

But don’t be so arrogant and think that you don’t have shortcomings either- we all do, and we have to be mature and accept them, but the main focus of our attention must remain on our strengths. You will see before long that you will soon even be in a position to bring in people whose strengths remedy your weaknesses- now, that’s a thought, isn’t it?

This article was published by Entrepreneur on May 26th 2016. Click here to see it on their site