My Strengths and Weaknesses In a Business Context

One of the hardest things for me to do is to self-reflect, as it forces me to bring out qualities that aren't necessarily great in me. I have noticed that this is an uncomfortable subject for a lot of people; most of us don't like delving into ourselves to find character flaws, and we have a hard time pointing out the good traits that we have. Personally, I'm horrified of even the notion of starting up a business, which brings me to I believe to be my single most limiting weakness: A lack of self-confidence.

I simply do not feel like I have what it takes to make the risk of starting a business, because of the thought of failure. This also happens to be why I don't like to gamble; the ambiguity drives me crazy; I need something that is guaranteed, and not something that is a huge question mark. Perhaps with time and experience, this flaw in my personality will subside, but for now, it is a major factor that keeps me from wanting to start a business.

This leads me to my second weakness, which has plagued me through school, and is now in the process of impeding me from doing well on my business plan: I have a very hard time getting started on something. In my personal experience from writing many essays, I have noticed that getting started is the hardest part for me; I get writers' block, and freeze up. I spend considerable time just trying to find inspiration. Once I get my feet off of the ground however, I find it to be smooth sailing from there on out.

On the other hand, I feel that I'm an extremely good people-person, and I do very well in conversations. I know that this is an important part of being a good entrepreneur. You are going to have a hard time doing business with people if you aren't a likable person, no matter how good your idea is. If people don't like you, they won't buy from you.

Another aspect of being an entrepreneur is keeping your eye on the goal, and not getting side-tracked, no matter how poorly things may be going. This is an area in which I feel that I excel. I can be going through the worst time in my life, and yet still retain that laser focus on the goal.

Finally, I feel that I'm very good with written communication, which may seem like a relatively small attribute of mine. Let me tell you something though: I have been put in shock with how many people my age and older cannot write proper English in the papers or e-mails that they write; it's simply atrocious! That simply won't cut it in the business world. If you don't make an effort to correct all spelling or grammar errors, no one in their right mind is going to waste their time with you. You have to be able to write correctly in order to succeed in the professional world.

Enough with my semi-heated lecture; as you can see, I have some good attributes, and some that I'm not so proud of. Put quite simply, we are all humans, and as such we all have our flaws. The difference between a successful person and one that is not so successful is how they handle those flaws. We must be on a constant mission to correct those flaws, and improve ourselves. There is nothing that you can't do if you put your mind to it!