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Health & Fitness

Make Your Weakness A Strength and Follow Your Passion

Consultant and blogger Peter Bregman told Y's Men to turn their weaknesses into strengths and follow their passions - "these four are the keys to true success."

Peter Bregman, consultant, blogger and the author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get The Right Things Done told over 150 members of the Y’s Men of Westport-Weston on Thursday (Oct. 27) to turn their weaknesses into strengths and follow their passions.

After a personal odyssey that took him through “teaching leadership on wilderness and mountaineering expeditions with Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School,” he became a consultant with Hay Group and Accenture.

He left to start his own practice, created a totally unrealistic business plan, then beat it, gaining revenues of $500,000 in the first year, and growing from there. But personal satisfaction eluded him.

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He changed again, moving from New York to Savannah for three years looking for that satisfaction. He tried rabbinical school, contemplated becoming an actor, he even started a “phantom hedge fund.”

He ultimately came to grips with the fact that he enjoyed consulting, but not running a large consulting business.

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So he stepped back and restructured his life. He became a sole practitioner, accountable only to himself (and wife Eleanor, his guest at the meeting). Today he provides “strategic advice to CEOs and their leadership teams.”

As he wandered he developed insights he has turned into two books and numerous articles in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Inc., and Fast Company, among others. And he is now the most heavily read HBR blogger.

Highlighting 18 Minutes

He began his talk asking each person to choose someone sitting nearby as a partner in an arm wrestling exercise. He used it to point out that those who sought to win applied old habits, and old habits, what you do today, may not make you successful tomorrow.

He continued, “we often get caught up in the moment, not the goal,” then summarized 18 Minutes, the antidote to old habits and conventional wisdom.

Bregman counseled the group to operate at the intersection of their strengths, weaknesses, uniquenesses and passions – “these four are the keys to true success.”

He cited David and Goliath to illustrate how learned habits – here strength against strength – may not be appropriate. David recognized he was no physical match for the giant, so he used his slingshot, changed the game and overcame Goliath's perceived advantage.

He also cited, Moneyball, the recently released movie about a book by the same name by Michael Lewis, that tells how the Oakland Athletics baseball team changed their game.

Earlier this decade they lost three significant players to teams that offered richer contracts than the A's could. The A's responded by identifying players with skills other teams undervalued and signed them at well below what their market value should have been. They enjoyed a couple of good years – until higher budget teams took away their advantage.

Weaknesses, he continued, are things “we're terrified to to admit in our culture.” So once you've identified your weaknesses “look for places your weakness is a strength... create a place to succeed.”

For Bregman that's consulting. He found that he likes to talk, something he could do as a rabbi, and that would also allow him to inspire people. Acting is speaking, and speaking to business groups is a large part of what he does. Likewise, the hedge fund reinforced the fact that he sought the opportunity to make money.

And he enjoyed being an entrepreneur, not a manager.

He talked about uniqueness. He once came to an interview with a senior executive he knew well outside the business world wearing a suit and tie and was told “that’s not you.”

On another occasion he came to a consulting client in suit and tie only to hear the client tell him that’s not what he wanted. He wanted someone who looked more comfortable sitting with him on his couch than across a conference table.

But, he said, he had also lost clients who wanted the buttoned down, suit and tie consultant.

Bergman's message was “I'm clearly different, but I get clients that fit me.”

He led into passion by talking about self-control, calling it a “muscle that weakens over time,” and “our pretend.”

The great diet breakfast turns in to a dinner that's just the opposite.

He bemoaned the fact that for many, “passion is relegated to a part time activity.” Passion is finding something you are good at, then enjoying working to be great at it.

He closed with “whatever life is ahead of you is different from what is behind you.”

If you're interested in learning more about Peter Bregman, his books or his blog, start at www.peterbregman.com.

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