You Can't Fix Weaknesses

"You can't fix weaknesses." This according to David Rendall in his book "The Freak Factor." The premise is that, on the one hand, you only get incremental gains by focusing on fixing your weaknesses. On the other hand, it posits, build your strengths to achieve exponential growth.

This seems entirely contrary to the directive during my upbringing that came from my family, community and schooling, each of whom encouraged me to be "well-rounded." I'm not quite sure straight As with an F in Math would have led my parents to say, "It's ok, focus on your strengths." The Liberal Arts education at Miami University, where I went to college, required and still prioritizes a varied course plan. Being the best at one thing did not mean it was ok to be the worst at all other things in my hometown, perhaps unless you were a sports star or musical savant.

It is also contrary to what appears to be an ever-increasing amount of commentary about how one's weakness is actually a superpower. How many companies are started because a perceived weakness in person, solution or market? How many Ted Talks start with a weakness and end with a strength?

Context matters, clearly. Let's look at a couple examples.

Personally, I am not very good a golf, yet. I have recommitted to the game, however, and I am making real progress, in large part because I am fixing a weakness (getting off the tee). Interestingly, in doing so, I have seen some regression with my wedges, which has historically been my strength. Is Rendall right? My plan is to get my driver to be sufficient and then refocus on the rest of my game to make overall improvement.

Professionally, we used to focus a lot on making sure our team could do well in and out of the courtroom, in front of a client and behind the scenes. It became clear, through the years, that such dualistic capabilities are rare and, in fact, most people possess, and prefer, one versus the other. As such, specialization has become far more important to our efforts with respect to professional development. Much like my golf game example above, I prefer proficiency as a generalist en route to mastery as a specialist for the entire team.

To me, this all boils down to a cost-benefit analysis. The moment a weakness can't be improved much more, it is time to focus on sharpening a strength. It is simply not in me to avoid trying to fix, at least in part, a weakness, especially since embracing it and leaning into working on it (regardless of fixability) can unearth a superpower. Ultimately, I like the idea of looking more like a golf ball, well-rounded, despite some dimples and a scratch or two after bouncing off a cart path or hitting a tree with my drive of the tee box.