Item 5: Weaknesses

Suggestion 4. Forget It: Don’t try to Fix Your Weaknesses

David Rendall suggests that it is a waste of time to try fixing weaknesses. He claims that fixing weakness is a slow, and painful process. He also suggests that fixing weakness tales time away from more potentially fruitful or fulfilling ventures. And finally that remediating weakness does not actually work, as weaknesses never become valuable strengths.

            Although pessimistic, I would say that this suggestion is a valid one. It could be seen as a cold, hard truth. Rendall’s theme in this manifesto is one of owning weaknesses. I think that I could take this suggestion even a step further by turning weaknesses around into strengths. Where a weakness is a weakness with some application, it may be a strength in another. Rendall’s example is that he applies his attention deficit and tendency to talk too much in his career as a professor.

Suggestion 5. Build On Your Strengths

            Converse to suggestion 4, this one suggests building a foundation of strengths. David Rendall claims that it feels good to focus on strengths, one’s greatest potential lies in their strengths, and that strengths make up for weaknesses and can even make them irrelevant.

            This suggestion absolutely works in tandem with the last. I’ve found for myself, when recording and mixing music, that focuses on my strengths always boosts my confidence. If I dwell too much on my weaknesses I will eventually become discouraged. It does feel good. Also, if I build on my strengths and make those parts of a work string enough, it might overshadow or validate the weaker parts of the work. I’d say this is also a valid suggestion.

Identifying My Own Weakness

            I’m not really the introspective type but one weakness I can easily point to in my creative process is the tendency to dwell too much on one aspect of a work and lose sight of other aspects of the work.

            For Instance, on a mix I was just working on for a metal band, I became entirely fixated on the level of the vocals and the kick drum. I mixed the song accordingly and then sent the mix to some friends (who are also audio engineers) to get some feedback on the mix. They told me that the mix was muddy and the guitar wasn’t cutting through. Of course this was eye opening, and it caused me to go back and look at the mix as a whole and eventually re-engineer and remaster the entire track.

            Time and again, getting an outside perspective from a knowledgeable friend has helped me work around my weakness. I’m grateful that I have this option and I hope I will always have the availability of knowledgeable peers to give feedback.