Accentuating Strengths vs. Focusing on Overcoming Weaknesses in Your Career | Elevate at USC

There are two schools of thought: One is, go into areas that accentuate your strengths, and the second is to go into areas early in your career that help you overcome your weaknesses because your career is long and you'll need to learn to overcome them over time anyway.

I am in the former camp. First, discovering your own strengths and weaknesses involves building the self-awareness. Then, once you start discovering what your strengths are, your focus should be on doing things that accentuate them. There are too many people that are good at too many things, so if you do things you are not genuinely strong in, then it is a waste of time and potential.

Personally, there are many things I am not particularly strong at over my career. But, I do enough to be good enough at them, and move on. You're just not going to be good at everything, so the sooner you can realize that, the more time you'll save over your career."