One might assume that in order to accomplish amazing things in life, you must thus be an amazing person who does most things really well.
That’s just not the case at all, actually.
I don’t think it’s a stretch to claim that I’ve accomplished some pretty amazing things in life.
I used the catalyst of being fired from my automotive job during the Great Recession to chase after financial independence.
I retired from my automotive career just after turning 32 years old.
I became financially free at 33.
I became a dividend expat at 35 years old, moving more than 9,000 miles away in order to live a better life.
I’ve written a best-selling book about how to reach financial independence and live a more sustainable, free, and happy life.
I’ve created a holistic lifestyle that’s customized for me and by me, which prioritizes enjoyable and passionate activities like writing, reading, exercise, building relationships, listening to music, and sleeping in.
I’m now in the best shape of my life, all while eating whatever and whenever I want (due in large part to that holistic lifestyle I’ve created)
This is awesome and fantastic stuff.
But I also totally suck at many things.
Things I Suck At
If I were to make a comprehensive list on everything I suck at, this article would stretch on for days.
That’s because I suck at many most things.
Let’s take just a quick look (so that my ego doesn’t suffer too much today):
- Dancing
- Swimming
- Singing
- Photography
- Playing any kind of instrument
- Working with almost anything mechanical or technical
- Being handy
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Remembering names
- Remembering dates
- Learning foreign languages
- Taking tests
- Introducing myself to people
- Putting up with BS
- Fishing
- Eating vegetables
- Being social
- Waking up early
- Playing any kind of sport
I think that’s good enough for today, isn’t it? I’m getting bummed out over here. Haha!
There are many things that could be added to the list. The point is that I suck – I’m downright terrible – at many, many things in life. But I’ve still been able to accomplish a lot, with so many years in my life yet to go.
The first thing one has to do is admit they suck. We have to realize that we’re going to suck at many things in life. Once we accept this and move on, we’re free to focus on our strengths and improve ourselves.
Play Up Your Strengths
I’ve gotten where I am today by playing up my strengths.
I’m terrible at most things. But I’m rather proficient at a few things.
And I’ve leveraged those few things into almost all of the success I enjoy today.
I find that the 80/20 rule shows up over and over again in life. It might not be a perfect 80/20 split in all instances, but there’s enough to make something of it.
In my case, I spend most of my time (over 80%) on the vast minority (less than 20%) of things I’m really good at. I hone those skills to the point of what I’d consider excellence.
By doing so, I’m able to get greater output from less input, relative to what would otherwise be experienced if I were to spend more time on something I’m less capable of (and perhaps less interested in).
Mastering this – and experiencing amazing results – involves holistically blending the minority of things you’re really good at, where you’re able to spend most of your time and energy on individual aspects and pursuits in your life that all more or less play up your strengths.
Doing so will allow you to unlock most of your inner potential, forcing personal growth and evolution in the process.
Find Your Niche In Life
Living in Chiang Mai, I’ve had an opportunity to meet all kinds of entrepreneurs. And the variance of interests and skills is great.
One entrepreneur might be into coding. Another entrepreneur might be doing vlogging. Yet another person might be totally into building an online store. And then there are affiliate marketers, writers, speakers, and so on.
What these individuals are (smartly) doing is focusing on their strengths and spending time in their respective niches. This allows them to leverage themselves by spending less time and effort, yet experiencing greater output.
I couldn’t be more terrible at (or interested in) coding, for instance. I’ve looked at it. It makes no sense to me. And I couldn’t imagine wanting to spend more than one minute doing it. Taking the time to build out that skill, for me, would be a waste of time and effort that could otherwise be used to leverage myself in a greater capacity and experience more success and happiness as a result.
I’ve instead spent a lot of my entrepreneurial and personal efforts on becoming a better writer, which has brought about great happiness and success in my life. I enjoy writing. It’s also something I don’t suck at, which is obviously nice.
However, I was talking to a digital nomad just the other day who can’t stand writing. Just hates it. Isn’t good at it. So he instead focuses on other areas of business that have allowed him more success.
So the key is to really find out what you’re good at (which may take some experimentation) and then leverage most of your time and efforts into maximizing those few things, leaving the things you suck at (which will probably be most everything else) to remain off to the side.
Conclusion
Using the 80/20 rule in the aforementioned manner can allow you to become so much happier, freer, and more successful than if you otherwise spend more time, energy, and focus on worrying about and slogging through the things you suck at.
One can certainly aim to work on things they naturally suck at, if they so choose. There’s room in the 80/20 rule approach for that (less than 20% of one’s efforts). But spending too much time trying to improve things which just do not naturally play to your strengths may end up frustrating and limiting you.
Life doesn’t involve a one-size-fits-all approach. Neither does business, financial independence, or happiness.
And so you should find an approach that works best for you.
However, I find that admitting what I suck at (which is plenty) and then focusing on what I’m naturally pretty good at (which involves just a few things, really) has allowed me to tap into so much inner potential as a human being, and this approach to life has brought about great success, happiness, and freedom.
What do you think? Do you suck at most things? Do you use the 80/20 rule in this manner?
Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of: aechan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
P.S. If you’re interested in focusing most of your efforts on the few things you’re really good at in order to become financially independent, I’ve compiled some excellent resources that personally helped me do exactly the same thing. Check them out!
Good words to live by Jason. Know and stick to your strengths. Mitigate your weaknesses. Or improve upon them if you must. Tom
Tom,
Definitely. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. But I’d rather be truly excellent at a few key areas of life than be mediocre at many things because I’m spreading myself too thin and not playing to my strengths.
Cheers!
I laughed when I read this article. I’d argue that you are better than most at several important things. But life is here to keep learning so you can tick a few of those of the list as you wish. For example, I think you can get the hang of swimming with a little practice and instruction since you know how to breathe and you have muscles. Plus the water temperatures here are pleasant year round, or at least after the winter season passes in CM in a few months.
I hear you about coding. I’m not good at it nor do I have the knack at present but if it is presented in an interesting enough way I’d be willing to give it a go. You are good at solving problems and researching solutions, for blogging, writing and many other tasks that I’d find potentially more daunting.
-Mike
Mike,
I wouldn’t argue against that. In fact, that’s really the point I’m trying to make. I’ve become incredibly proficient at a few really important things at life, but this is because I have some built-in skill sets and interests in these things. I play to my strengths, which has allowed me to scale heights I never thought possible. If I would have instead spent a lot of my available resources on other aspects of my life, I’d probably see much lower overall returns on those resources deployed (because of the opportunity cost). To each their own, but I couldn’t imagine approaching life differently.
Best regards!
Great article! Completely agree. I think there might be a case for trying a bunch of stuff when you are younger and pushing your boundaries (I never thought I would be good at presenting as I’m a terrible introvert) but I ended up working as a presentation skills expert to an international publisher a couple of years back 😉
Now that I am old and grumpy I tend to sit back and work on things I am good at/enjoy (it’s ‘hell yeah, or no’, as Derek Sivers puts it: https://sivers.org/hellyeah).
Keep up the good work 🙂
sendaiben,
Absolutely. Figuring this stuff out (where your strengths and weaknesses are) is much better when you’re younger, all else equal. Of course, things change over time. So you have to take some boundary pushing in your youth with a grain of salt. In the end, though, the key is to be honest with yourself as you figure out who you are, then shove most of your resources toward that which will maximize your potential. It’s also important to remain open-minded to any changes in dynamics as opportunities, skill sets, resources, passions, ideas, etc. shift over time.
Thanks for sharing!
Best wishes.
You enjoy writing, I enjoy reading what you write. Following you for a couple of years now. I disagree with perhaps 5% of what you have to say(95% agreement is pretty darn good). But I’m always impressed with your ability to thoroughly analyze a topic and produce a very readable position.
I’m glad your blog has begun to diversify away from personal finance. I’m still an avid personal finance guy, but I enjoy reading your well reasoned thoughts on any topic.
Fred,
Thanks so much!
Yeah, I’ve been super fortunate in that I’ve been able to separate aspects of my writing. The blogging mostly focuses on higher-level concepts relating to real-life experiences after reaching financial independence and growing as a person, while the freelance writing I do mostly focuses on the investing side of things. I just totally revel in being able to tackle these different topics like this. I get to explore analytical/quantitative stuff on one hand, then I can move on to more exploratory/philosophical ideas on the other. This has allowed me to continue writing and putting out high-quality content. There’s no way I’d still enjoy writing if a good chunk of my content was dividend income updates, portfolio updates, budget updates, etc. I can’t do that, repetitively, forever. It’s not challenging, it’s not fun, and I can’t grow as a person/writer if I just regurgitate budget/dividend numbers over and over again.
When Dividend Mantra kind of went sideways on me after I took on an outside party to help me run it, I was really upset. But I was already starting to move toward this kind of content on the blog side. A lot of DM readers just wanted the numbers, however. Plus, having to run a major blog with all of the stuff I had going on with the platform took away from my ability to write what I actually wanted to write, making it that much more likely/easy to keep putting out the numbers updates, which would have eventually become a major problem. I felt trapped. I’m free (in more ways than one) now. Truly blessed! 🙂
Best regards.
Huge Fan Jason!!! You inspired me to start my own blog and made a difference in my life. I guess I can relate my self with you with most of the weaknesses 🙂 and I guess I need to work on my strengths to have a stress free life like you do.
Please keep writing and as always your articles are inspirational for likes like me.
Jay,
Really glad to hear that. Being able to inspire others out there to reach for their dreams (financial and otherwise) is something that fills me up with joy. It’s a real honor to be in that position. I can only wish you success as you walk your own path toward financial independence and all that it confers. 🙂
Best regards!
An interesting point. I agree that emphasizing our strengths is an important tool, especially when one is trying to do something as extreme as achieving financial Independence in your thirties.
However, I have found some of my most FUN experiences have been when I’ve pushed my own boundaries. I don’t like dancing, and after trying it I still didn’t like it. BUT, I did teach myself to code one summer and it’s become one of my favorite hobbies.
I guess I just mean to say that I agree–it’s much better to not spend too much time focusing on things we can’t change, but that pushing our boundaries and challenging ourselves is an important part of personal growth, something I know that you have advocated as well.
FreeInFire,
Absolutely. Pushing/expanding boundaries is important, but that’s not something that’s only possible with things you’re downright terrible at. You can push/expand/grow yourself while simultaneously focusing on or accentuating things that play to your strengths. I think that’s really the overarching point here. When you focus on things that play to your strengths, you’ll naturally find that the boundaries can be pushed far greater than if you were to otherwise limit yourself. 🙂
Cheers!
I like the quote, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” I like to add to that, the new things you do/try/experience. This is where your 80% of what you are not “good” at, or have never experienced happens. You have one life to live, take advantage of it!
David,
That’s an interesting quote, but I don’t personally agree with it. I’m far different today than I was five years ago, and that stretches well beyond the people I’ve met and the books I’ve read. My entire life is very different than it was even just a couple years ago. But that’s because I’ve focused most of my efforts on areas of my life that I’m naturally inclined toward.
Best regards!
Hey Jason,
great article – it seems simple, but a lot of people don’t focus on their strengths, some even don’t know them. I think that usually you can find your strength by looking at the things which interest you the most. In this “area” it’s easier to be disciplined, motivated, remember important stuff, work hard and enjoy it.
Years ago i read a good article that this concept is to be practiced when leading people at work. If you are the boss, don’t try to change people by making them work endlessly on their weakness, but let them improve their skills where they are good at. The reward will be huge. They will be much more motivated and the results of the firm etc. will be better.
Best Regards,
DividendSolutions
DS,
Right. I agree. I’m not sure many people go through these exercises (to find out what they’re great at and then leverage it). Frankly, I’m not sure a whole lot of people are built for a lot of the concepts I share and espouse. But for those who do see what this is all about, the concept explored in this article can take something already wonderful and make it really powerful.
Thanks for stopping by!
Best wishes.
Great Article. Loved your idea of 80/20 rule for focusing on your strength. I agree wholeheartedly.
Keep up the good work. 🙂
Happy Investing.
The Dividend Karma – TDK.
TDK,
Thanks so much! 🙂
Cheers.
Great article and great points, J. I think anyone still in the working world can get and stay focused on their weaknesses (perhaps driven by the feedback loop from their employer’s review process), while de-emphasizing development and maximization of their strengths. A natural result seems to be people being B- on average or worse, versus A+ at a core group of skills. I think this is why so many people find FI so empowering is the opportunity to reframe around things that can make you truly great in certain areas, and spend greater time in introspection to really realize what their core skills are that they enjoy and want to maximize.
Jason,
Right. Exactly. I’d rather be as close to A+ as possible on things that will move me closer to where I want/need to be than B- on a whole bunch of stuff that doesn’t matter, doesn’t interest me, and doesn’t behoove me to work on.
I agree that financial independence allows you reset your mindset in many ways, with this whole concept being just one of many. It allows you to focus in a way that is otherwise not really possible, and that can create a rich environment for striving toward your potential. 🙂
Thanks for adding that!
Best regards.
Great article! And always remember that your core strengths and someone else’s core strengths may be different, but also compliment each other. That person who is an expert coder may be able to help you create a website that has features that WordPress doesn’t offer, for example, or create an app or a computer game that has lots of text-based content.
Of course, it all depends on what you want to do. But it’s always great to remember that you can leverage other people’s skills to achieve that which you cannot, and they can do the same with your skills.
I bet there’s a coder out there right now thinking, “Boy, I can really use a philosophy/finance writer for this project I’m working on.” I bet the “passionate team of coders, writers, and marketing specialists” that took over Dividend Mantra were thinking that.
Sincerely,
ARB–Angry Retail Banker
ARB,
Absolutely. There’s no need to be excellent at everything; it’s not possible anyway. Leverage what you’re great at, seek those massive returns on the outlay of resources, and then keep an eye out for the assistance of others if/when you need help in an area that doesn’t play to your strengths. Outsourcing and delegating will only allow you more resources to allocate toward that which will actually propel you closer to where you want/need to be. 🙂
Cheers!
Good one Jason. Knowing your strengths and leveraging them to the hilt will make up for a whole bunch of weaknesses.
TFR,
Couldn’t agree more! 🙂
Cheers.
I like the idea of writing down a list of the things I suck at. Many of yours would actually be on mine as well. But by seeing the list on paper maybe then I’d be more fired up to pick one and change it. As you said, some will always stay on the list but it’s nice to have a target of things to go after.
Great post!
Accidental FIRE,
Definitely. If you feel particularly fired up about one or two things in particular, go for it. I just don’t think it’s worthwhile to direct more than 20% of your focus/energy/resources toward those things. You’ll be much better off in all aspects of your life if you direct and leverage the majority of your efforts toward that which you’re naturally inclined toward.
Thanks for stopping by!
Best regards.
So true. Nobody says that you must be a renaissance man to be successful. As you wrote, find out want you are good at and work on making improvements. Like you, I am only good at a few things. My list would be similar to yours, except for getting up early and fishing.
Dave,
Right. Couldn’t agree more! 🙂
I bet even most “Jack of all trades” spend 80% of their time on only a few things, even if they’re just naturally skilled at more things than most people. But if you can make the most out of your natural gifts, even if it’s a very small list of gifts, you’ll likely find that you can go incredibly far in this life.
Thanks for dropping by!
Cheers.
Hey Jason. Very sage advice. My problem is that I suck at determining what I don’t suck at. Haha. I’ll keep searching for the holy grail of competency, though. Perhaps 2018 will be the year.
Mr. Groovy,
I guess it’s easy for me because I suck at almost everything!! Haha!!
Not much left to choose from. So it’s whatever is left. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by.
Cheers!
One of the things I learned a few years into my career is that it’s best to focus most of your time on making what you’re good at great and just shoring up your weaknesses enough so that they don’t become derailers. No one is good at everything and it’s impossible to be great at anything if you’re constantly trying to do everything. Here’s to hoping that pays off in this next chapter.
openmouthsgetfed,
Couldn’t agree more.
Becoming “passable” in weak areas, where/when necessary, obviously makes sense. I did what I had to back when I still had a job. But I only put in enough effort to get by, as using too many resources toward that endeavor would have served to reduce my output in areas that were more effective in moving the dial for me.
Thanks for adding that!
Cheers.
Wow, what a humbling idea! Most people have a hard time realizing what they suck at but you are good at identifying your weak areas!
Jerry,
I guess listing things I suck at is something I don’t suck at? Ha!
I’m only good at this because the list is very long. I cut it short for the sake of brevity (and to save my ego a bit), but the list would stretch on and on.
Best regards!
I used to have a boss who told me that if I wanted to be extremely successful at life, “find your niche and then be better than everyone else at it.” Especially if that niche can provide help to others, than you truly hit a home run!
Great post and I look forward to reading more of your posts in the future!
Sean,
Very sage advice. 🙂
Thanks for dropping by.
Looking forward to what 2018 brings us all.
Cheers!
A few years ago I read a bunch of books that helped me to live my life strategically in the pursuit of my goals. The first book I read was the Living the 80/20 Way by Richard Koch. It literally changed my life! Lake Girl @ My Little Blue Kayak.
Lake Girl,
That’s great! 🙂
I haven’t read the book, but the 80/20 rule shows up over and over again in just about every aspect of life. Knowing how it works, one can really take advantage of that. This is just one example, but there are so many opportunities to do so.
Best regards.