Rob Walling

And the cost was that I might have to record this episode on a weekend. And here I am Saturday afternoon recording it. And you know what? That's the decision I made. I'm here for it. My next topic is another dichotomy. It's weaknesses versus blind spots. So I was interviewed on a podcast last week and the host started asking me about personality tests like Myers-Briggs, Enneagram.

Colby A, StrengthsFinder, we were kind of batting some stuff around. And I never remember my results from these tests. I actually have taken all of them, I believe. And what I do is I read through, I take what I can learn from them, I internalize that and say, oh, yeah, I should do that. And then sometimes I'm like, that's not me at all.

Colby A, StrengthsFinder, we were kind of batting some stuff around. And I never remember my results from these tests. I actually have taken all of them, I believe. And what I do is I read through, I take what I can learn from them, I internalize that and say, oh, yeah, I should do that. And then sometimes I'm like, that's not me at all.

And then I kind of forget, like I don't remember what number I am on the Enneagram. I always have to look it up. But when I pull it up, I'm usually like, oh yeah, that's totally me. It describes me and my strengths and my weaknesses. I think it's pretty good at it. Now you have to take these things for what they're worth. Some of them are put together by researchers.

And then I kind of forget, like I don't remember what number I am on the Enneagram. I always have to look it up. But when I pull it up, I'm usually like, oh yeah, that's totally me. It describes me and my strengths and my weaknesses. I think it's pretty good at it. Now you have to take these things for what they're worth. Some of them are put together by researchers.

who have 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 people take these and they normalize the results. And they are quite scientifically, I'll say accurate, you know, as accurate as you can get with something like this. And then there are other ones that are kind of made up by people, not really tested, and you got to take it for what it's worth. So I always hold them with a grain of salt.

who have 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 people take these and they normalize the results. And they are quite scientifically, I'll say accurate, you know, as accurate as you can get with something like this. And then there are other ones that are kind of made up by people, not really tested, and you got to take it for what it's worth. So I always hold them with a grain of salt.

but I have found them helpful for me over the years to learn just a little more about my weaknesses. So we were talking on this podcast and I had this epiphany on the spot and I'd never said this before. I said, weaknesses are fine. We all have strengths and weaknesses. You don't want blind spots. A blind spot is a weakness that you're not aware of.

but I have found them helpful for me over the years to learn just a little more about my weaknesses. So we were talking on this podcast and I had this epiphany on the spot and I'd never said this before. I said, weaknesses are fine. We all have strengths and weaknesses. You don't want blind spots. A blind spot is a weakness that you're not aware of.

When you have a weakness and you know about it, you can work around it. If you're the founder who bounces from one thing to the next to the next, who follows each distraction, who maybe has a little bit ADHD, whether it's clinical or whether it's just something in your personality, and you realize, you know what?

When you have a weakness and you know about it, you can work around it. If you're the founder who bounces from one thing to the next to the next, who follows each distraction, who maybe has a little bit ADHD, whether it's clinical or whether it's just something in your personality, and you realize, you know what?

I'm never going to focus on anything long enough to build something great, then you can acknowledge that weakness and stick with things longer than you think you should. But if you're not aware of it, how can you work around it? If your weakness is that you don't like doing hard things or you don't want to do or work on anything that you don't want to work on,

I'm never going to focus on anything long enough to build something great, then you can acknowledge that weakness and stick with things longer than you think you should. But if you're not aware of it, how can you work around it? If your weakness is that you don't like doing hard things or you don't want to do or work on anything that you don't want to work on,

and let's say you're a maker, you're a builder, and you want to write code, you want to build websites, you want to build products, if you know that's a weakness and you'll listen to this show or you'll read books about this topic or hear opinions and advice,

and let's say you're a maker, you're a builder, and you want to write code, you want to build websites, you want to build products, if you know that's a weakness and you'll listen to this show or you'll read books about this topic or hear opinions and advice,

from folks in your mastermind, or if you're in a community like MicroConf Connect, wherever you are getting advice, if you don't realize that you're constantly doing that and avoiding the hard things and only really doing what you want to do and justifying it with, well, that fits for my personality, you have a blind spot.

from folks in your mastermind, or if you're in a community like MicroConf Connect, wherever you are getting advice, if you don't realize that you're constantly doing that and avoiding the hard things and only really doing what you want to do and justifying it with, well, that fits for my personality, you have a blind spot.

And the way to know you have a blind spot usually is if you have smart people around you, successful, smart people who are kind of all telling you the same thing and you keep not listening to them and you're not finding the success that you want, you You probably have a blind spot. Blind spots are really tough. The hard part is you don't know you have them.

And the way to know you have a blind spot usually is if you have smart people around you, successful, smart people who are kind of all telling you the same thing and you keep not listening to them and you're not finding the success that you want, you You probably have a blind spot. Blind spots are really tough. The hard part is you don't know you have them.

And turning blind spots into weaknesses and learning about a blind spot and kind of admitting that you just have that as a weakness eliminates it, right? So how do you learn about your weaknesses? Well... I think there are three ways, right? There's introspection. There's asking yourself, why do I fail at things? Am I the one that starts too many things and never finishes?