You can be the largest or the most agile, not both (Strengths, You Can’t Have Them All)

At the beginning of a United flight to O’Hare they started with a commercial with their CEO talking. He said, “We have the largest network in the world. Because we’re so large we can be agile.”

Wrong.

You can have one or the other – largest or most agile, not both. Larger doesn’t make more agile. I’ve seen that in most large companies – it’s extremely hard to change direction once direction is set in place. Does a sail boat or a cruise ship change course more easily? Is former NBA center Shaquille O’Neal more agile than point guard Chris Paul because he’s over a foot taller and weighs over 100 more pounds? Nope, just the opposite.

People (myself included) have a hard time with the strengths-based concept that we’re very, very good at a few things and not as good at the rest of things. We wish that we could be amazing at everything. Simply, we can’t. It’s a waste of our precious time.

Far better to notice what we excel at and just focus our energy there. Partner with others that have the strengths we don’t have or find a way to make those weaknesses irrelevant. If you’re agile, let being enormous to someone else. Focus on you and what you do best. If you can bear the initial pain of disappointment from accepting that truth, you have a lifetime of happiness ahead.