On True Competitive Advantages

We were taught that our strengths are a set of admirable qualities and skills that set us apart in a good light: leadership, diligence, empathy, attentiveness, education, neatness, and so on. But that’s exactly where the competition is fiercest, because the overwhelming majority of people are all racing to develop the very same things. Thousands of books have been written about polishing these skills; online courses sell them as the “secrets of success.” We end up in an endless race judged by identical criteria.

But here’s another question: what kind of “crap” or pain can we wade into and clean up that others can’t? What problems are we able to solve that they’re afraid to even touch? What actions can we take that strike them as hateful and unbearable?

That’s where our real edge lives!

It’s worth developing precisely what is hardest and most unpleasant for others to do — while we, by our very nature, thanks to our individual quirks, get a quiet or open pleasure out of it.

Me, for example: I have a high level of cynicism, confirmed by a genetic test. I know how to ask and discuss the questions other people are too shy or too scared to voice. It makes them uncomfortable; they sense a potential conflict and try to avoid such situations.

I don’t accept “no” as an answer, and I can negotiate long and stubbornly to find a solution. Not against the other side, but together with them. That lets me play mediator in the toughest standoffs — where the parties may hold radically opposing views, accumulated emotions, personal grudges, or even aggression.

These traits let me build communication where others go straight to avoidance, and find fairly unconventional ways out of hard situations. From each result like that I get a genuine sense of self-realization.

I’m certain each of us has quirks like these of our own, and it matters to identify them!

Here’s to finding and developing the skills most people can’t stand! 😎