One of my greatest life lessons is to be good with the bad. By that I mean getting not only comfortable with my weaknesses, but actually embracing them as strengths.
As a younger man I was convinced I was good at most things: better in some, worse in others, but nowhere was I just bad. That youthful hubris came crashing down on me/us as the operational side of PS Audio floundered. It wasn't until I owned up to the fact that I sucked at running a company, that the day-to-day operations were beyond my capacity to properly handle, that we started to find some success.
In fact, when I look back over our history, more often than not it was my separating out the good from the bad that really made the difference. I was good at this, and bad at that—a hard pill to swallow at times when reality didn't match my self image—but the more I owned up to it the easier life became.
Being not only ok with my shortcomings, but actively seeking them out in order to focus on what I really am good at—even if that number is diminishingly small—has perhaps been the most significant life changing event I can think of.
Letting go of my fear of being a total loser offered me my biggest boost of confidence for the few things I am actually good at.
If you can rejoice in accepting your weaknesses, while focusing on strengthening your core assets, life suddenly gets a lot better.
It only took me half a century to get a glimpse of this phenomena. About as long as it took to become an overnight success.
