In the article The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness written by David Rendall to be a pretty interesting article. In this article Rendall outlines 9 ways that someone can recognize their weaknesses and ways that the can use their weaknesses to their advantage. The nine tips that Rendall offers are as follows:
1. What’s your problem? This suggestion means to ask your family and friends what your weaknesses are.
2. What’s My Problem? This suggestion ask what do you think your weaknesses are.
3. Flawless: There’s Nothing You: This suggestion states that for each strength there is a weakness that goes along that strength.
4. Forget It: Don’t Try to Fix Your Weaknesses: This suggestion states you shouldn’t fix your weaknesses because it is a slow, hard, difficult process that distracts you from other activities
5. Foundation: Build On Your Strengths: This suggestion states that you should build on your strengths rather than fixing your weaknesses.
6. Focus: You Can’t Do Both: This suggestion states that it is too hard to fix weaknesses and build on strengths.
7. Fit: Find the Right Spot: This suggestion states that instead of trying to fix something find a place where you fit in based on your strengths and weaknesses.
8. Freak: The Power of Uniqueness: This suggestion states that your weaknesses make you unique and you should embrace them.
9. Freak Factory: Putting Your Quirks to Work: This suggestion states ways to increase your “freak factor”
In my opinion I thought that this article offered some good suggestions but overall I found most of the suggestions repetitive and contradictive to what I have been taught as a student. One suggestion that I thought was a very bad idea was the number 7 which was find the right spot. I understand where he is coming from but I think he didn’t explain it very well. I understand what he is trying to get out of the Rudolph analogy about how his flaw which he thought made him useless ended up saving Christmas. However what bugged me most about this article is the “Freak Fallacy” at the bottom of the page that stated “I need to adapt to fit the situation”. As a student I have been told that adaptability is the number one quality that professionals want their employees to have, especially in the media business that changes so rapidly. I think that a person needs to know how to adapt to things, and waiting around for the right opportunity is just going to screw you over.
Another suggestion of Rendall’s that I didn’t particularly care for was number 4, Forget It. He says that someone should not try to fix your weaknesses. Yes, I understand that reasons he gives for why not to because it’s slow, painful and distracting; yet building on your weaknesses is going to make you an all around stronger person. I don’t believe that you need to completely change your weaknesses into strengths but I do feel that you need to work on your weaknesses to get them to a point where they are not weaknesses that are going to bring you down as an individual. Take a look at the movie The King’s Speech, the king had a stuttering problem and could not give speeches. However he worked on it and fixed his problem. If he did not work on his weaknesses it would not have made him the person that he was.
There was a suggestion that I did find useful though. His third suggestion “Flawless” helped to show me that to every strength there is a weakness that goes along with this. I feel I can use this to help me in both ways. I can take a weakness that I have and find a strength that comes out of it. I can also find a strength that I have to notice a weakness that I can build on.
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