Evening everyone, and greetings from Philadelphia, the soon to be site of the best World Series in the last 20 years by the way. I wanted to talk with you real quick about the myth of strengths and weaknesses. Over the last few video blogs I’ve been talking about a related topic in that our tendencies, programming and belief is that we are flawed. Whenever the job requires us to possess something that we don’t naturally possess, we automatically assume that we are broken and the thing that is flawed. I’ve talked about how this is the exact opposite of what the very best do.

Tonight I want to introduce you to a new concept. Most people believe that we possess natural strengths and weaknesses. I’d like you to turn that belief upside down for a minute if you will. We do not possess natural strengths and weaknesses! What we do possess are natural talents and non talents, and we manufacture our strengths and weaknesses. What I mean is, whenever we rely on our natural talents, we manufacture a strength. Until we try to use that natural talent, however, we only possess a potential strength. If you agree so far, then watch what happens when you reverse that. Whenever you rely on a non-talent, you also manufacture a weaknesses. Until you try and use that non-talent, you only possess a potential weakness. Get the difference?

I’m not afraid to tell my clients that they have a weakness. My clients pay me well to be honest with them, usually because they are CEO’s who no one else will say such thing to. What I’m saying is that since we manufacture our weaknesses (by allowing our success to depend on our non-talents) we are in control! It is you who controls what weaknesses you have, not your brain, not your boss and not the world. As long as you don’t allow your success to depend on your non-talents, you will not have any real weaknesses – only potential ones, and potential anything never hurt anyone.

The very best we studied understand this concept. They get it! They know that as long as they find roles, set goals and take actions that only rely on their natural talents – they will only manufacture strengths.

So, instead of trying to figure out how to change yourself to FIX your weaknesses, try changing the way you go about what you do so you don’t depend on your non-talents. Of course, this would be easier if you were completely aware of what those talents and non-talents were, so check out the Genius Profile workbook on this site. It’s completely free and there you’ll find some really cool tools – one of which is a free genius profile where you can develop the same level of self-awareness for your natural talents that the very best in the study possess. Then you can figure out how to make your success depend only on those.

So stop trying to fix weaknesses and just stop manufacturing them instead.

Jay Niblick, success coach, peak performance consultant and developer of the groundbreaking self-discovery book and coaching program at http://whatsyourgenius.com. Jay discusses how conventional wisdom tells us to fix ourselves instead of the role we play at home or work. Why fix what God put in you? You are born with natural talents and the sooner you become aware of them and live life authentically, the sooner you will see a higher level of success.

To quote the late great Dr. Robert Hartman, “Stop trying to put in what God left out and instead work with what he put in!” That’s hard enough, and that’s what the geniuses we studied do every day. Do you know what your natural mental talents are? If you would like some help feel free to take the same free profile the study participants used to identify theirs. Just go here to get your own free genius profile. When your email window opens just use “genius profile” in the subject line and a link will be emailed to you where you can complete it for free.

Welcome. This site is all about you, your genius and how you can leverage your natural talents to achieve greater performance, satisfaction and success. My name is Jay Niblick and I’ve spent the last eight years conducting a study of hundreds of thousands of individuals across twenty-three countries. The results of this research has helped us to better understand some of the key differences between those who achieve significant success and those who struggle. The exciting results of this work are the lessons each of us can learn from these hyper-successful people; lessons that are straightforward, understandable and surprisingly counter to the conventional wisdom on how can improve. As a matter of fact, the most successful people do very much the exact opposite of what must of us have been taught when it comes to finding success and personal satisfaction.  Enjoy this site and don’t forget to pre-register for the book that shares these lessons with you (coming out late May 2009).

Thanks!  J.

In the research we measured people against five different levels of performance: poor, average, above average, excellent and genius. My use of the term “genius” doesn’t mean a person’s IQ, rather it is a title that grew out of the study and it represents the highest level of performance we measured. As we interviewed the very best people, again and again those we talked with would make statements like, “You should see Tom, he is a genius at what he does”, or “Mary is an absolute genius it when it comes to this work.” So, our use of genius in the study simply means someone who has consistently achieved the highest level of performance possible, regardless of field, level of title. In this sense of the word, anyone can learn to become a genius at something. The question is, “at what?” What’s Your Genius asks the simple question, “What are your natural talents, and how can you leverage them to become better at whatever you do?” I think you’ll like the answer too.

In the study two key differences emerged between the top and bottom performers. The first key difference is that 5th level performers all have much higher levels of self-awareness. Self-awareness is all about really knowing what your natural talents are – and are not. The natural talents I’m talking about btw are your mental talents for things like: complex problem-solving, creativity, empathy, big-picture thinking, competitiveness, attention to detail, organizational thinking, persistence and a host of other cognitive abilities as measured in the study. The second key difference is that 5th level performers are significantly more authentic. They make sure that whatever roles they fill are as dependent as possible on the mental talents or abilities they naturally possess, not their ability to try and acquire new ones. Authenticity means filling a role that is true to who you are, not spending all of your time trying to develop new natural talents. The reason this is so important is because according to everything we know about how the human mind works, we can’t develop new thinking talents. Unfortunately, this is what most 1st through 4th level performers try to do. In other words, those who struggle to achieve significant success spend a lot of time trying – in vein – to change the core of who they are while those who succeed choose to focus their energy on better maximizing that which they already are. As the elder statesman of management theory, Peter Drucker, once said, “The key is to make weaknesses irrelevant.” Notice he didn’t say, “fix them.” Making them irrelevant means filling a role where they simply aren’t important or needed.  That’s authenticity!