On Weakness

And the paradoxical nature of growth and success

I knew I had failed as a rapping Hare Krsna monk.

I worked hard - so hard - with little to show for it. I studied business just to try to make the music work and I realized business was a better bet than music.

Plus I was broke.

I bought an info product on how to sell jingles to try to make money. It taught me to cold call anybody running radio ads locally that didn’t currently have a jingle.

One such business was a church.

I got lucky.

The guy who answered knew and liked my Dad and they had just recently talked about getting a jingle. You couldn’t have asked for a better prospect. Further, I was good friends with a girl who was very active in that local church who was an excellent singer.

I wrote the music and lyrics, she laid down the vocals and the result was a pretty damn good jingle.

They invited me down to the church to play it. They had a whole committee there to evaluate it. If I closed the deal, I’d make $1000 - more money than any gig ever paid me.

[The most money I made from a gig was $600. I played on a flatbed truck at a hog farm in Iowa. I crushed the set so well they ended up paying me double.]

I played the jingle for the church and they loved it. I was already counting the money in my head when a voice in the committee asks:

“Who else have you written a jingle for?”

Truth was: no one.

But I didn’t want to admit that. I hemmed. I hawed. I have no idea what I said but I tried to make it out like I was some pro jingle writer.

I lost the sale.

Sigh.

I know exactly what to say now. I’d look them in the eye and say:

“I’m glad you asked. I have never sold a jingle before. You are my first. Which is why I worked so hard on this. I know by starting off with a great experience with a great client like yourself, it will help me launch my career. I’m so excited to work with you to make sure this is the best experience you’ve had with radio ads.”

Own the weakness. Take the limit, address it and use it as leverage.

Owning a weakness is a STRENGTH.

Every weakness then is a strength.

I was so incredibly shy as a child. If you were walking down the street on the same side coming toward me, I’d cross the street.

I’d beg my mom to call my friend’s mom; to then have their mom put my friend on the phone; and then have my mom hand the phone to me.

Otherwise, who knows who would answer!?

I studied social interaction like a language, breaking it down to the ABCs. It took me longer to figure it out but when I did, I had a deeper understanding of it.

Owning the weakness gave me STRENGTH.

Because socializing was so hard for me, I got good at being alone. When I was alone, I’d write. To write well, you need long periods of time in solitude.

Easy.

My ADHD makes it impossible for me to focus on two things at once. So when I read Deep Work I wasn’t too terribly impressed.

What was groundbreaking to most was survival to me -

I had to work that way just to get things done.

I watch the love of my life with awe - she can focus on an important task, have a kid interrupt her, give a perfect and insightful response to that kid, then resume her important task as easy as breathing.

Me? I hear a leaf blower in the distance and I’m ready to commit assault.

I have to prioritize what I can do because I can’t do much. I learn how to do A LOT then with a little.

Guess what they call that in business?

Leverage.

I tend to people please. Put their needs before mine. Enable lesser behavior, excusing it for one reason or another.

I’m a habitual over-empathizer.

This allows me to be taken advantage of. It also deprives people around me from growth if I’m “rescuing” them from challenging situations.

When I tweak the knob a few degrees though - to hold boundaries and prioritize my needs equally - then my empathy becomes a super power, and my desire to help a key competitive advantage in the market place.

If I was just decent at boundaries - instead of starting with none and having to learn them intimately - I would do good. But not great.

Each limit is an opportunity for you to examine what is useful about having that limit. What can you keep that’s good about it and bring it forward into your future self?

And what part of the limit, the supposed weakness, can be leveraged so that when you get to the strength, you’re even stronger than “strong”?

There is something you find impossible today that once you solve for it, allows you to accomplish things everyone else thinks is impossible.

-Jason

P.S. Having a mastermind around you can help you most safely own a weakness to unlock the strength. I have a few $1,000 tickets for our next in person Driven Mastermind event ($35,000 per year per members). It’s in April in Vegas.

Only catch is your business must do at least 7 figures. Message me if interested and I’ll send you the details.