Ok I will contune this series a bit more…
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Most people try to leave there weaknesses in a closet. I think your weaknesses are as important as your strengths in that as long as you communicate them to the rest of your co-workers they can help you and likewise the reverse will happen.
My weaknesses would be the following:
Pride – I am very proud of the work that we do and I get overly upset at times when I see people unfairly cast a light on me projects we have worked our ass off on. I think this was probably my worst weakness years ago but being more public I have learned to let it go. You kind of start to pick and choose when you should care about someones opinion.
The biggest thing about not being able to get past your pride is you never learn from your mistakes. At one time I was so bad that when someone would critique my work my immediate repsonse would be to attack instead of actually look at what the person said and thank them for there feedback (which I try to do a lot more of now).
Temper - At times even by my closest friends I have been called a little volatile. It never gets to a physical level. I think this is a weakness I can almost write off. I have gotten much better at this then I was even 2 years ago. I think having a baby helps.
Self Discipline – Definitely my worst all time fault. I have a really hard time motivating myself to do things that I do not want to do. I guess this could also be selfish. I think I have come a long way on this one too from when I first got married and also brought other people into the company. When you are responsible for more then just yourself you learn self discipline if not for yourself for those who count on you. Even with that said I struggle with it. The best way I cope with it is I try to give myself a reward system. Like for instance I will be like ok after I finish this list of work then I will write cool code that will make me no money but will be fun as crap.
Patience - eek another tough one. I want stuff when I want it and I want it yesterday. Amazon prime is my weakness if they actually had a “send this yesterday” I would opt for that whatever it costs.
So ya I think its important to recognize your weaknesses and not be afraid of them. We are all who we are just try to make improvements one day at a time.
This has been your ShoeMoney TFS tip #6
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Boy do I identify with the “patience” weakness. When you find a “send this yesterday” site let us know. I will often pay more at a store where I can pick it up today than wait for it for a couple of days while it is shipped. I am not a big online shopper because of the having to wait feature. I’ve been that way all my life. I suspect I am not going to get over it.
Interesting list, I never pictured you as a volatile guy. Oh, and on that last one I think you mean “patience”.
Being blessed with 2 babies I can feel the difference in myself when it comes to temper. Though I wasn’t exactly over my head before, I feel that I can control even whatever times I would have just blown up.
I find myself more self disciplined and patient as well, ever since I went fulltime freelance. The freedom can be liberating, but if not taken the right way can be debilitating. Meaning I needed to get my act together to make sure I could buy baby food.
Pride? Maybe pride hurts a little but its actually needed, can you do something you are not proud of with dedication?
I think you might have forgot spelling or grammar as another minor weakness
I do not consider them weaknesses and anyone close to me knows how serious I mean that.
Another quality post. I would have titled this one TFS 6 The Dirty Harry Series – A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations.
Discipline is certainly one of my weakness’s. I love starting projects but have a hard time staying focused long enough to see them finished. I’ve had to revert back to a written gameplan for every project and cross off jobs as they’re completed.
Don
Those are my weaknesses too! Patience, lack of self discipline when needing to do stuff I don’t want to do, temper and pride. Pride not as much as the others.
Please give us all the patience we need RIGHT NOW !
I just run all my important stuff through MS word. Gets ride of my slopping spelling.
I think the hardest part, next to actually possessing these weaknesses, is admitting to them and telling the whole world about it. So hats off to you, Shoe, for making a list of yours. I can very much relate to pride and temper. They’re both tough to manage, but by knowing that I have too much I could start getting them under control.
Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is key.. I have found to try to place people around you to help balance you out. as that way where you are weak they are strong vice versa… it has worked well for me so far.
Boy, do you need to wait until the little one gets old enough to get on you nerves. Let’s talk about temper then
This starts with like 2-3.
F*** spelling. We’re not writing a book here. It’s the idea. We’re conveying messages back and forth which we can’t always do in person.
Great post! Thanks for sharing this list. One of my New Years Resolutions was “Preparing Better to Be On Time Places”, I was always late places because I was usually so wrapped up in work that I would forget everything and everyone else.
I know for a fact that temper can be a problem… Its gotten me in a lot of trouble a few times lol. As for self discipline I would say is one of my best traits
BTW: Good job on the series of posts Shoe, they came out pretty good.
Well, I don’t have a blog. I use it for more professional emails and stuff like that.
I agree with this. We are chattin.
Lol….. Here we go again.
Was just looking through your pics. You lost a ton o weight! How the heck did you do it? Where is the shoemoney weight loss site? You should be promoting the heck outta that.
i ll give you a maybe strange look on grammar.
point of view.
Im from argentina, a spanish speaking country for those who dont´t know.
Well, fact is that I like lenguages a lot, and really enjoy all kinds of unnordinary writting, invented or mashed words writting, etc. When you learn english as a foreign lenguage, is nice to later learn: real worlsd english, and then slangish, or whatever is different fromr ruled idiomatics.
Not to deffend Joe, doesnt need it either, just to drop an international
Forget the weaknesses. Go with the strengths. Hire out the weaknesses. Two golden rules from Howie Schwartz: 1. realize that you are expendenable (i.e. get over yourself) 2. environment trumps discipline.
It’s good to know your weaknesses. It helps you to be aware of your blindspots and improve them, most arrogant people aren’t aware or will not admit their faults. Which is sometimes the reason they fail at most things.