Strengthen strengths or strengthen weaknesses?

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Did the quizzes in a book about aptitudes and such. Seems my strengths are in artistic, practical and words based aptitudes, but I'm weak in organization and business skills. Those weaknesses are definitely true. I guess the strengths might be correct as well, though I spend so much time on the internet or doing house/family stuff that I get little time for the other stuff.

If I were to work on developing my strengths, then I might become good enough to base a business around them. But then I should give over more effort to developing those areas identified as weaknesses if I wish to be successful.

If you could only give time to developing your strengths or your weaknesses... which would you choose? Which would ultimately be a better use of your time, or be more useful to you?

Weaknesses.

You'll still have your strengths, but you won't have any weaknesses. In theory.

Without doing those quizzes, I know that my strengths and weaknesses are the same as yours. I worked in an admin role for 11 years, where organisation and business skills were required the most. I tried to perfect them day in day out for 11 years and never really got anywhere. Meanwhile, I just got better at the things I was good at. My artisitc and practical skills advanced way beyond my wildest dreams, as I became a dab hand at developing databases and my words based skills got better and better as I wrote procedures and reports. For me, the answer would have been to leave the stuff I wasn't so good at to someone else, but that wasn't an option in that job.

But, with your own business you could pay someone to do that for you, freeing up a lot of time (as it would be if you were struggling), to get on with what you do best. It needn't be a full-time employee, as there are companies who do these sort of things for small businesses.

Now, I'm a full-time mum and my options are open, as I don't have to rush back to work. I've decided to forget about the things I'm rubbish at and just work on the stuff I know I can excel at. So, I'm an amateur artist, with a desire to make this a career. But, I'm also intending studying for a computing/statistics qualification to change the focus of my degree (in case the art thing doesn't work out - I know artists should have a backup plan).

Good luck, whatever you decide.

I know that for my son, I choose to strenghten his strenghts. I figure the weaknesses evening out with strenghts at a moderate "normal" middle ground wouldn't make him very special, or successful.
I did the same for myself growing up, regardless of what anyone said to me.
As an adult it is different of course , your strenghts are strong (lol) and you can work on your weaknesses. I think it's age dependant.

I'd probably go for weaknesses. I'm like that, very focussed on the negative with a view to fixing it. I'm barely aware of my strengths.....I might list them as a confidence-building exercise, but the sense of pride that gives me is neither intense nor lasting, and I rapidly forget what they are. They seem to take care of themselves....my strengths are the things I seem hard-wired to do and to develop unconsciously, without intervention. There's a saying that you can't keep a good one down......I think that's true, talent finds a way out. Weaknesses, on the other hand, can bring down the whole house of cards if I don't sort them out.

I can see the validity of a more balanced view that would treat strength and weakness with the same weight. But I just don't seem to think that way. Similarly I don't often get wowed by what the rest of the world sees as exceptional talent.

Maybe this is the wrong question.

What do you want to accomplish? What is preventing you from accomplishing it? If your weaknesses in business and organizing impede your progress, how does augmenting your strengths remove this obstacle?

Alternatively, if you can find a partner that is good at organizing, then you complement each other and you CAN focus on your strengths.

What works best for me is: to strengthen strengths and figure out how to make these strengths serve as out-of-the-box aids to areas in which I am impaired.

Organisation deficits? Then, rather than trying to improve organisational skills in "typical ways", you could figure out what exactly gives you trouble with organisation and how to use these strengths of yours to help you get around these problems.

Only work on your weaknesses enough to keep them from standing in your way, and be creative about work-arounds for them. But focus a lot of energy on improving your strengths. You won't be making a career out of a weakness, you'll make a career out of a strength (unless you really have your heart set on a career that taps a weakness strongly, then you should work on that weakness or find a different dream). You don't want to be 'well-rounded', after all the saying goes 'jack of all trades, master of none'. You want to be really good at whatever you make your living out of.

I think it makes more sense to further develop strengths, and work on your weaknesses if you choose........but what is the point in spending most of your time on skills you don't really have when you could be doing something with the strengths you have. But that's just my opinion.

Strengths for gosh sakes! STRENGTHS!

The worst possible thing an Aspie can do is focus on weaknesses. All that does is put the focus on your weaknesses, and takes the focus AWAY from your strengths.

I know it may seem to a lot of folks that "Strengths, because they are strengths, don't need to be worked on, and weaknesses, because they are weaknesses, do," makes sense, but in practice, especially with Aspies, it just plain doesn't work for the most part.

Why? Because when you put all your focus on weaknesses, that's all you tend to think of. "What you are not good at!"

How on earth will that promote self-esteem and positive attitudes?

It won't!

If however, you focus on your strengths, that puts you in a positive mind set, promotes self esteem, and positive health forces.

So what if you need some skills you're not good at in order to accomplish what you are good at? Well, then, you need them! And if your focused so hard on your strengths, with a strong self-esteem and positive energy, you are far more likely to work on that which you're not so good at, in order to continue the cycle of doing what you LOVE, increasing self-esteem and positive energy forces in your life.

Just watch any child being forced to "work on" only that which they are not so good at. I see it every day in my own children, They aren't allowed to do anything they are good at in school unless they spend inordinate amounts of time focusing on the stuff they aren't good at. In other words, they HAVE to do the stuff they're not good at BEFORE they can do anything they are good at.

Trust me, it's making them feel very negative about themselves. I see it first hand, and it pisses me off to no end.

In the human body, attention should be given to weaknesses

hence the Chinese dictum of balance and harmony

Excellent responses! What I get from it, at least for myself, is a percentage approach. The greater portion should be given to developing strengths, but enough effort should go into strengthening weaknesses if they play an important part in reaching a goal.

While I've never found 'the thing', I do now have an idea where it might be found. The realms of Prac Art &/or Words.