What to Do About Your Suckiness

Scenario: "Dude, I want to be a fabulous entrepreneur. But, I suck at the little details. I'm screwed. I will drive off a cliff tomorrow. Yay!" Hold on there, buddy. Take a chill pill. If you have a weakness at something that's absolutely vital to your company, you have hope: Every single freakin' one of your weaknesses can be fixed. No, not by you -- but, by the millions out there who are craving to kick-ass where you suck. Scene:

• Meet Yourself.

  You're a sexy, passionate chef. You start an Italian restaurant in the Big Apple. You're a star at cooking. You love it. Time it takes: 20% You suck at presenting. You hate it. Time it takes: 80%

• Meet Ann.

  Ann's a passionate designer. She works right along side you at your Italian restaurant in the Big Apple. She sucks at cooking. She hates it. Time it takes: 80% She's a star at presenting. She loves it. Time it takes: 20%

What should eventually happen?

It seems obvious: Let Ann focus fully on presenting, so you can focus fully on cooking. But folks, in businesses across the nation and across the world -- from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic to the Indian, it's the continual theme: Workers never focus fully on what they do best. Lebron James shouldn't paint. Picasso shouldn't act. Tom Cruise shouldn't play basketball. Nor should you do where you truly, sadly, pathetically, unfortunately suck.

If you suck at something, don't do it.

Why? Three reasons:

1. We're more productive doing things we're absolutely passionate about, and where we kick ass.

   Give a passionate musician a guitarist, and watch her shine in a week. Give a basketball-obsessed kid a basketball, and watch him shine in a week. When we're absolutely passionate about what we're doing, it's as if we're using every part of our brain to obsessively focus on what we're doing. Nothing makes us more productive. According to researcher James Loehr, we're at our best when we're absolutely confident and passionate about our work:

   Positive emotions ignite the energy that drives high performance... During our early research, we asked hundreds of athletes to describe how they felt when they were performing at their best. Invariably, they used words such as "calm," "challenged," "engaged," "focused," "optimistic," and "confident."

2. We take an insane amount of time trying to fix our weaknesses, but end up sucking anyway.

   Think back to the time you studied for your Calculus final. How was it?

   Case 1

   For most of you, it was boring. Blah. Sucks. It probably took consecutive all-nighters. Your average butt likely got somewhere in the B-range on the test.

   Case 2

   Now, remember that nerdy bastard who barely studied for the test, probably played video games all week, and drank tons of SoCo the night before -- but the mutha flucka got a freakin' 98% of the mother $^@%^% test? It happened too often. (Yes, this article writer is bitter.) Most of us spend inordinate amounts of time in our businesses trying to shore up our weaknesses. Think of your typical day: If you're like most of us, you're spending crazy hours doing stuff you hate, but you feel are "necessary". Our tip: Immediately hand over stuff you hate to someone who's absolutely passionate about that stuff; you'll boost company productivity like a mother.

3. We live once: Let's do what we absolutely love every second of our day.

   Uh-oh, the mushy stuff: If you're not having an absolute, passionate, crazy blast at what you do, it's time to hand it over to someone else. Life, as it turns out, should be fun.

The moral:

Your junk is another's jewel. Give it to someone who passionately wants it.

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