Know Yourself

Managing Oneself: Peter F. Drucker

If I could recommend one book to anyone, it’d be this one. To a large extent, it stems from the philosophy of men such as Socrates, who stressed that 2015 Drake, “Know Yourself.” I will try to summarise the first portion of this book as well as I can, but this is almost an injustice, Drucker’s words truly are compelling and thought-provoking enough. Btw, if you like what you read, go buy that book!

Intro

Drucker opens up stating with the key to Managing Oneself, “We will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution.” This is not limited to out jobs or career paths, but to our life as whole.

What are my strengths?

He explains, “Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. Most often people know what they are not good at – and even then most people are more wrong than right. And yet, a person can perform only from strength. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone something one cannot do at all.” Finding your strengths is a ‘major key’ to any success you may have. Your strengths can be afforded to you by nature, and just as often, they are developed my nurture. Nature afforded Usain Bolt and Michael Jordan, with height, agility, power and speed – giving them a natural affinity to become dominant sportsmen. Natural affinity isnt limited to just sports. Oprah Winfrey was always told during her younger years that shes just too emotional… Many might see this as a weakness… it was her strength, for she would go on to make the Oprah Winfrey show which was at it’s core, all about emotion. Albeit, for Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West and Justin Bieber, it’s the nurture of a skill that became their strength. One isn’t born with the ability to code a revolutionary social network or the ability to drop an album like the College Dropout!! But what’s important to note is that we all have strengths. *And a way to discover them is through, ‘feedback analysis.’ My mentor, Tai explained the way to do this effectively is think ahoy what you have been told you are good at all your life. Think deeply. It may be that you’ve always been good at making others happy – maybe you should do PR. It may be that you’ve always been a fantastic singer – maybe you should audition for the X Factor. It may be that you’ve always been a natural leader and good speaker – maybe you should be an entrepreneur or politician. The point is that you should aim to pursue a career which will allow you to work based off what you are good at.

… Now That You’ve Figured Out Your Strengths

1) “Put yourself where your strengths can produce results.” This can be difficult, but its necessary for finding that optimum career path. Oprah put herself on television, where her showing of vulnerability and strong emotion caused millions of people around the world to tune in to her program. Michael Jordan put himself in Sports, where his competitiveness and physical being could make him dominant.

2) “Work on improving your strengths.” If you are natrually good socially, maybe you should start working on that public speaking. And experiment on how you deal with annoying people, and also how you keep close to those you care about.

3) “Discover where your intellectual arrogance is causing disabling ignorance and overcome it.” Try to work on the things that are preventing you from being the best-of-the-best in your field of work. For example, for Cristiano Ronaldo – early in his career he was never that good at heading the ball. But once he became great at this, he was quickly ascended on his way to becoming one of the greatest football players of all time.

I try my best to execute what Drucker discusses, even when it’s difficult, and it usually pays off. And I’m 200% anyone reading this can too.

Keep grinding,

~ Tyler