To make sure a student graduates a university as a well-rounded student, and in debt FOREVER, educational institutions often require students to take “Electives”. Electives are defined as classes outside the required curriculum. Elective courses can be on almost any subject, and when I say any subject, I mean ANY subject.
To give you an idea of how odd these electives can be, Michigan State University offers an online course on “How to Survive A Zombie Apocalypse”. Ohio State University offers a course on “How to Stage Revolutions”. University of Pennsylvania, yes - the ivy league school, offered a class titled “Wasting Time on the Internet”.
At Ball State University, I was required to take electives as well. And as you guessed it with my ADHD brain, the courses I selected were all over the board. I took classes on; Meteorology, Astronomy, Music Appreciation, Asian Cultures, and Mythology.
But there may be something to this well-rounded student concept because it’s that mythology class that is helping me write this blog today. Specifically, there is one story in mythology I am focusing on; The Story of Achilles.
When Achilles was an infant, his mother (Thetis) learned that her son would die at a young age and to prevent this from happening, Thetis took Achilles to the River Styx. It was said the river would give Achilles the great power of invulnerability. Thetis picked her son up by his left heel and dipped him into the water and for many years it worked. Achilles was opening up cans of whoop ass on many battlefields. But as the myth goes, towards the end of the Trojan War, Achilles was shot by a poisoned arrow in his only area of weakness, his left heel. Regardless of his strength and invincibility, this one weakness ultimately led to his death.
And that is the first lesson I have learned with this podcast that I share with you today. Before you want to start any business, podcast, adventure, etc. you must understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Your strengths will lead you to your success. They are your “unfair advantage” against the competition but as with Achilles it only takes one weakness to cause it all to fail. Know your strengths but fully understand your weaknesses.
Like all of us, I have my weaknesses as well (I have a large list of referrals if you need one), but you can still succeed. The key is to understand your weaknesses, work on them, overcome them, and in many cases simply surrounding yourself with talented individuals in your organization that have these same job skills as their strengths.
So, go open your own cans of whoop ass but make sure to protect your Achilles Heel. Ohh...and we are always looking for talented individuals to join our team as well. Just send us a message.
“Life is about kicking ass, not kissing it” - author unknown
Dutch Daulton
