Weaknesses and threats bring negative emotions
Weaknesses and threats are scary words.
Weaknesses are internal, and threats are external.
When we know we have a weakness, it affects us deeply. We are feeling vulnerable.
When we are under a threat, our existence is put in jeopardy. We are uncomfortable not being in control of something that may happen to us.
Weaknesses and threats could be strengths and opportunities
However, with every weakness or threat, there is a shouting possibility.
Making new strengths out of weaknesses
A possibility to create opportunities and new strengths.
When you redirect the pain of weakness towards creating new strengths, it is a strength in itself.
You don’t have to transform a weakness into its opposite, meaning fixing a weakness and making it a strength.
That is the ultimate leverage.
Some of the people who succeeded in the past had some kind of limitations that caused them pain.
That pain thrust them forward and it became an advantage.
They might have been poor, shy, not so good looking, slow, small, handicapped.
All of these elements can be used as strength in some contexts. Or the pain caused by it in childhood can be used as a strong engine to move forward.
Creating opportunities out of a threat
In many cases, when a threat is on your shoulders, there are two solutions:
- Fold into yourself, be immobile, and ultimately be hit by the threat that becomes a reality
- Look out for ways to mitigate the risk of the threat, by finding smart ways to do things differently.
In the first case, your fear prevents you from moving, and it leads to a negative outcome.
In the second case, by questioning the way you do things, you may find new opportunities for development.
Let’s say that you were Kodak before the numeric age. They could have led the innovation, blocked any competition from taking the lead, by capitalizing on its existing edge.
They froze, did not accept the existence of the threat, and died.
Examples of opportunities
There is an environmental threat, let’s use it as an opportunity to create new economic growth by developing new green technology.
Let’s use it as a way to make humans closer with each other’s by finding new solutions, share more and build less individualistically.
A desert can be a place where life cannot remain. But it is also a huge surface of the Earth where the sunray land. It could create a sustainable source of electricity.
A company that has ageing top management, which will retire in a few years. It could be a cause of a huge loss of competence for the company. But it could also be the opportunity to recruit even more talented people that could take the company to a new place.
The takeaway
Now, the moral of the story is this:
- If you have a weakness, use it as fuel to create new strengths,
- If you have a threat, use it as a chance to create new opportunities.
If the intensity of the weakness (resp. threat) is 2 out of 10, then try and create a strength (resp. opportunity) that is at least 8 out of 10.
In short, if you keep your eyes open, you’ll always be able to turn a negative element or threat into a strength or opportunity.
