What to do about weaknesses
I'm not a detail oriented guy.
You can probably tell by now. Each newsletter I send out has at least three typos.
My book probably has hundreds.
The thing is, I don't have the patience to review my work line by line for typos. I find it tedious.
In school and in my corporate jobs, this was considered a great moral failing and I've always felt a little bad about myself for not doing better.
BUT, I've learned feeling bad about it is a waste of time and energy.
You have a few options if you have a weakness that shows up in the workplace.
- Do nothing; accept the consequences
- Find people or tools reduce the weakness (get some to review your work, use tools, etc.)
- Find work that leverages your strengths and where your weaknesses don't matter so much
Do nothing
Do nothing is usually unacceptable. If you work for a client that cares about typos and you keep making them, you'll drive them crazy and get fired eventually.
Only choose this option if there are truly minimal consequences for your weaknesses.
But let's explore the next option.
Find people or tools to reduce your weaknesses.
If there is someone else, or even better, a tool, you can integrate into your workflow to reduce your weaknesses, you can improve your work product dramatically.
If you have a colleague that LOVES proofreading and editing, you can ask them on occasion to review important work product if they're willing.
But unless you're their boss, you can't rely on this.
So it's better to just incorporate a tool. If typos are your weakness, something like Grammarly could work.
As a solo 1099, you'll probably need to rely heavily on tools because you're responsible for everything.
Find work that leverages your strength
The best option if you can pull it off is to find to work that leverages your strengths.
I try to stay away from work where typos become obvious.
I can do this because I've become pretty good at concocting and executing new projects in my data visualization domain.
This means I can talk to a client, figure out what they're going for, and then come up with a passable first version of a product.
It's actually relatively rare, so clients appreciate it.
I try to stay in this zone for any work I do.
This is a more difficult strategy because a) you have to be aware of your strengths and b) a lot of work assigned to you won't line up with your strengths.
BUT, if you can, pull it off, it's a nice spot to be where you become respected for your strengths and don't have to deal with your weaknesses.
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Everyone has weaknesses; just make sure you pick an appropriate strategy to deal with yours.
Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.