Let’s Get Honest About Your Strengths

I want to be the world’s next Elon Musk. I want to invent things that change humanity. I want to disrupt the energy industry with massive renewable energy.

I want to do all this and more importantly, I want to be the one to make all the discoveries. I want to be the brain that figures it all out and the heart that powers the whole thing. I want to do it all.

There’s just one problem, I suck at physics and high-level math.

I rejected this notion for the longest time. I never wanted to face it head on. I made excuses.

I’d tell myself, “I should get a tutor”, or “I just have to approach problems differently”, or “I should start with an easier course”. These were convenient excuses for me to delay my studying. I’d tell myself to start up again once I got the tutor, the new approach, or the new course.

In reality, I just didn’t want to face failure again. I couldn’t stand it. Staring a problem right in the face and having no idea how to solve it or where to start. Peaking at the answer sheet, seeing each step to the solution taking leaps to the next step without any clear indication of how the leap was made.

This was my night last night. Stuck, frustrated, bored. Looking at my introductory mechanics textbook with beaten eyes, I had an epiphany.

Math and physics are not my strong suit, and they never will be. This is why I kept giving up on them, and then coming back months later hoping that “this time it’ll be different, I won’t give up!”. It wasn’t different this time, it wasn’t different the last time, and it most likely won’t be different the next time.

I was feeling good in spite of this frustration because I gained a clearer understanding of my honest strengths and weaknesses. This allowed me to feel more self-realized.

Imagine the person that says, “I could have been great at drawing, I just never tried.” You may know someone like this (maybe it’s you). This person will spend years living with a gnawing feeling that although they were good at their profession, they could have been great at drawing and been a massive success if only they made the effort. This thinking holds them back. They aren’t being honest with themselves.

Now, imagine this same person actually made the effort to succeed at drawing. They would give up, then try again, then give up, then try again. This cycle repeated itself for a few years until one day, they realized that they kept quitting because they weren’t actually good at drawing. Once this happened, they felt free. They could move on to find what they were actually skilled at.

In the first scenario, they were unwilling to test out their hypothesis, and never understood where their true strengths lie. In the second scenario, they figured out that their perceived strength was actually a weakness. This frees them up to find their actual strengths which they can improve even more.

Even after I write about this experience of mine, I am not giving up on physics. What can I say? I’m stubborn! It’s important to me to stick with it no matter what. I don’t care if I’m studying elementary physics until the day I die, at least I’m making the effort.

I am learning through this experience and many like it that I cannot do it all my self. I don’t think anyone can, not even Elon Musk. My lifelong goal is to surround myself with great people who are strong where I am weak.

With a great team, we can invent things that change humanity and we can disrupt the energy industry with massive renewable energy.