He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

— J.F. Clarke

What are you good at?  Do you appreciate your gifts?  Have you ever been told that something you thought of as a gift wasn’t really a gift?  (I have the gift of gab, and yet some seem to think that it’s a curse.  Hmmm.)  As I get older, I’ve realized that whether something is perceived as good or bad depends largely on where you stand.

My friend Teri moved up the coast to a small town only a few miles from the beach where the marine layer tends to keep things temperate.  She moved from Oldtown four hours to the southeast.  Both towns are rural.  They both have things that those of us from the “big city” think are weird – for example, Oldtown has a resident miniature camel.  The residents of both towns tend to think like people from rural areas.  When I was up visiting her, I actually said, this is just Oldtown with water and shade.  She essentially agreed.

Now, before she had moved up the coast, she had very little patience for the rural residents of Oldtown.  Up the coast, they’re somehow more charming.  The real difference is that Oldtown was desert and Newtown is coastal.  She doesn’t like the dry heat or the desert landscape.

When I visited in March, she showed me around as much as possible for someone with a broken rib, a sprained ankle, and a broken toe on each foot.  She’d really like me to move up there, but you see, I like the dry heat.  I thought her house in Oldtown was wonderful and I wouldn’t mind moving there, but not to Newtown – it’s not hot and dry enough!

From Weakness to Strength

The same thing can be true of how we are in the world.  I was recently listening to a presentation by Jeff Bosc, the founder of Priceline.  He had started his professional life in a corporate environment working for a man that he grew to admire.  When Bosc decided to go out on his own, his boss gave him an exit review.  According to the boss, Bosc:

• Didn’t have focus, his attention span was way too short to be effective
• Was too impatient, he needed to learn to let things come to him
• Had no respect for the rules, which had been put in place by people who knew way more than Bosc did

In other words, Jeff Bosc rocked the boat.  He made things happen – but that wasn’t the culture of the company he had chosen, so it was a poor fit.

The thing is that these “faults” of Bosc’s were exactly what made him successful as an entrepreneur.  A “lack of focus” can mean an ability to juggle lots of things at the same time.  Impatience can lead to finding ways to accomplish things more quickly.  And having “no respect for the rules” really meant that he was innovative in finding solutions whether those solutions conformed to existing procedures or not.

The nugget from Bosc’s story is that the behaviors were the same.  It was the view of those behaviors that changed based on Bosc’s chosen role – employee or entrepreneur.

Today’s Poor Fit May Be Tomorrow’s Innovator

I grew up in the era (Pleistocene) where children were seen and not heard.  Little girls grew into young ladies.  Young ladies didn’t argue… shout… run around (in any sense of those words)… wear patent leather shoes… (Ok, I put that one in for all of you who needed a phone book to sit on a boy’s lap.)  You name it and proper young ladies didn’t do anything that rocked the boat.  They were agreeable, polite and compliant.

All those proper young ladies walked right into the sixties and came out of high school and college, far less proper.  Enter the age of assertiveness.  But even when moving from proper young ladies to assertive young women, we did it in a style that worked for us.  We built teams that were inclusive.  We crafted solutions that were compromises with more winners and fewer losers.  The young ladies who had been a poor fit in a corporate environment evolved into employees who changed the face of corporate America. (Well, at least some of Corporate America.)

Know What You Want and Play to Your Strengths

What are you good at?  Do those strengths help you get what you want out of life?  If the answer is “yes”, then keep using them.  Believe in them.  Use them to succeed.

Of course there are things that you don’t do so well.  Are they stopping you from getting what you want in life?  If not, move on.  Most of us enjoy what we excel at and avoid what we don’t do well.  We naturally get better at what we’re already good at because we use what works well for us.  We develop those muscles because we use them more often.

Everyone has different gifts.  You don’t have to be good at the same things that I’m good at.  So, figure out your particular gifts.  Figure out how/where they fit.  Believe in them.  Focus on growing those gifts so you can contribute in ways that are fun for you and good for others.  Recognize and celebrate your gifts.  They are one more thing to be grateful for.