Would you rather work hard spinning your wheels and staying stuck in average success, or actively engage in your business doing what you do best?

Take the rock climber in the photo.  He will probably still reach his destination or goal because of his natural ability, but he won’t reach that goal as easily as he would have if he had planned ahead and done the things necessary to build that talent into a strength.  Having the right rock climbing equipment and proper climbing form will ensure a progressive pace to reach the summit.  So without further ado.. lets talk about why its important to identify your talents and hone them into strengths!

 

I work hard and it still isn’t enough

“Work harder” and “practice makes perfect” are two of the most common things we are taught growing up in order to succeed in life. If we were told to first discover our talent and then apply these maxims, we would avoid a lot of frustration and failure. When we know our innate talents and focus on them to accomplish a task, weaknesses eventually become less of a factor in minimizing success.

Everyone has muscles in their bodies. It is a well known fact that muscles become stronger with use. They grow and perform even more efficiently when we repetitively lift weights. Talents are the same way. Focusing on practicing a talent repetitively will result in strengthening it for near perfect performance.

Likewise, when someone is talented but doesn’t work and focus on growing the talent, they will maintain average performance. We all know someone who has obvious potential, but because they never mindfully apply themselves and work to develop their talents into strengths, their performance is inconsistent and they seldom can sustain greatness throughout life. So knowing your innate talents and applying strategic action plans for growing them will result in strengths that lead to greater success.

 

Focusing on Strengths changes everything

Once you develop your personal strengths and see the power of them in your business, it is natural to begin identifying the strengths in others that compliment your weaknesses. A business that makes the best pastries in town will only grow to sell their pastries in the county, state, country and eventually the world when they bring on people with the talent to make that happen. Teams of people focused on what they do best are the teams that make success look easy.

 

Wrapping up

As Tom Rath, the grandson of the Father of Strengths, Don Clifton says,

“You cannot be anything you want to be— but you can be a lot more of who you already are.”

Life is so much more fun when we focus on our natural strengths to excel and grow our business instead of working on our weaknesses to be something we are not.

 

Peeking ahead

Check my next blog post to identify the 10 Entrepreneurial Behaviors.

Now It’s Your Turn

What are YOUR natural entrepreneurial talents? What talent do YOU most want to hone as you grow your business? Let me know in the comments section below!