Build Systems Around Your Weaknesses, Not On Them
Dave Wood’s business partner once told him his greatest weakness is that he loves people so much he can’t see it coming when someone’s about to stab him in the back. Dave didn’t fight that description, he built a system around it instead of trying to rewire his own personality. In this episode he walks through the strengths-versus-weakness math John Maxwell showed him in a private seminar, the one that convinced him to stop polishing his flaws and put nearly all his energy into what he’s naturally good at. Here’s the episode.
First, I want to share a quote from the book Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. You may have heard of him. He says, for a business to survive and thrive, 100% of all the systems must be functioning and accountable. An airplane is a system of systems. If an airplane takes off and the fuel system fails, there’s often a crash. The same thing happens in business systems. It’s not the system, it’s the systems you don’t know about, that you’re not aware of, that can cause you to crash.
Today in my daily reading I continued my study of Orrin’s book, Resolve: 13 Resolutions for Life, reading chapter 11 twice, thinking carefully about each individual concept, because creating well-constructed business systems and processes is the single most important thing I’ve been working on and thinking about for a long time. He starts the chapter by saying, “I know that by viewing life as an interconnected pattern rather than isolated events, I improve my leverage.” Learning to think in systems allows you to take anything you’re doing in your business and create a repeatable process that can be scaled through teams of people. Systems can be step-by-step processes for team members to follow, personal processes you follow in your own business, or even technology systems and marketing structures that replicate parts of your business in a way that grows through the efforts or money of other people. How you start your day is also a system. Your personal development plan should be a system. The way you’re growing your influence should be a system. All of your sales processes should be put into a system. The more you systematize and track your behavior with specific intentions working toward a specific outcome, the better the results you’ll get in every area of your life that has a system built around it.
Systems Are Reliable When People Are Not
Developing systems for everything that’s important to you is learning to master what’s called systems thinking. I was talking to my brother William Wood about this, and here’s what he said: “Systems are reliable when people are not.” Go ahead and let some of the pressure go by saying out loud, people aren’t perfect, and neither am I. Where are you weak in a way that can be complicated, and where can you strengthen that by building a system that would dramatically improve the quality and productivity of your life?
Should You Fix Your Weakness, Or Build A System Around It?
Let me share a personal example with myself, a simple, non-obvious process I built around a weakness in my own personality. I don’t really have any ability to spot maliciousness in other people, for whatever series of reasons. What I mean by this is, for some reason I just always assume people intend to do the best, and deep down they want to do good. So I’m forgiving at a level that’s over the top sometimes. I had a business partner who once said this: “David’s greatest weakness is that he loves people so much that he doesn’t even see it when someone’s going to stab him right in the back.” And that’s true about me. He’s right.
Realizing that my lack of ability to discern negative intentions in other people causes a problem in my life gives me two choices. Choice number one is to try to change a core part of my identity, a part of me that I actually like. After thinking through whether I really want or should change this, what I decided is that it’s too core to who I am, and that I’d rather just continue loving people in the exact same way I always have in the past. Which brings me to choice number two, to develop a system, or a series of systems, to keep people who are malicious from getting too close, causing harm, or even wanting to get too close. I chose option number two because it allows me to operate in a core part of my mission, which is to unconditionally love other people, but it also prevents situations that allow others to take advantage of me and the people I love in a harmful or malicious way. That’s a system. From a perspective of weakness, you have to ask yourself, is it better to change where I’m weak, or is it better to build a system to make my weakness something strong? For the majority of people, I think it’s better to focus in most areas of your life where you’re strong, if you want to prosper.
Why A Six Beats A Four Every Time
I’ve had the good pleasure of listening to some of the most impactful thought leaders in the world, and knowing many of them personally. One time I was in a private seminar with John Maxwell, and he said something that reframed the way I was thinking about my own weaknesses. He said, “Take a look at your life, and I want you to rate your natural and developed strengths from one to ten.” What you’re going to find is that you’re a one in some areas naturally, and a six or seven naturally in others. Very rarely is someone naturally more than a six in anything, without a developed skill that took a whole life to achieve.
Here’s the thing: the whole world is trying to get you to focus on where you’re weak, to criticize you, to try to get you to improve the things you’re not good at. I’m going to tell you to stop it. Here’s why. If you take your entire life to develop a natural capability into a developed skill, it’ll move you two or three points with a whole lifetime of hard work. If you take that same effort and try to move a one to a four, you might make it, if you really pour your heart and soul into it. Fours earn about ten dollars an hour in North America. However, if you take the same effort and work on the thing you’re naturally a six at, after a lifetime of work it’ll move from a six to a nine. Nines earn over a million dollars a year. So let me ask you this: would it be better to be a four at something after a lifetime of work, or would it be more profitable to be a nine? It’s obvious.
I heard that, and I just made a decision that I was going to develop systems around my weaknesses and focus nearly 100% of my energy on the strengths I have in my life. The results of that decision have been a radical personal and business transformation that has now reached into over 200 countries. Where are you a one naturally, and where are you a six naturally? And now, where are you actually focused? In 2011, I created a system around a personal business that was doing around a million dollars a year in affiliate sales. By replicating that system through other people and technology, that has resulted in nearly 200 million dollars in sales, and the creation of about 15 people who have earned over a million dollars with me. Systems thinking did that. I’m not just talking about franchising things that are working, I’m asking you to think in systems and master systems thinking in every area of your life. Anything you systemize, and can track, can be continuously improved and multiplied through teams of people, and scaled by applying financial leverage as you refine the system.
Go ahead right now, take a notebook and a pen, and write down the areas of your life that you’re going to commit to build systems in. You matter.
Full episode transcript
Lightly edited from the original recording — fillers removed, nothing added. Income disclaimer.
Welcome to the Daily Shortcut. My name is Dave Wood and I'm here to share with you the power of systems. What are systems and why are they absolutely necessary for you to profit now or ever in your business? Well, if you watch this entire episode and you absorb 100% of the information, you'll be better equipped to think in systems so you can take anything that you're currently doing in your business and repeat it in a scalable and also a sensible way. Okay, first I want to share a quote from the book Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.
You may have heard of him. He says, for a business to survive and thrive, 100% of all of the systems must be functioning and also accountable. For example, an airplane is a system of systems. If an airplane takes off and the fuel system fails, there's often a crash. The same thing happens in business systems.
It's not the system. It's the systems that you know about that are the problem. It's the systems that you're not aware of that can cause you to crash. Today in my daily reading, I continued my study of Oren's book, which is called Resolve, 13 Resolutions for Life, by reading chapter 11 two times, thinking carefully about each individual concept. Because creating well-constructed business systems and processes is the single most important thing that I've been working on and thinking for a long time.
I've been thinking about what I want to go through and implementing in my own work and my life. What are systems and why do they matter in your own business? Well, starting the chapter, he says this. He says, I know that by viewing life as an interconnected pattern rather than isolated events, I improve my leverage. Learning to think in systems allows you to take anything that you're doing in your business and create a repeatable process that can be leveraged through teams of people.
Learning to think in systems allows you to take anything you're doing in your business and create a repeatable process that can be leveraged through teams of people. And scaled through systemic investment in process. Systems can be step-by-step processes that are in place for team members to follow, personal processes that you follow in your own business, or even technology systems and marketing structures that replicate parts of your business in a way that can grow through the efforts or money of other people. How you start your day, for example, is also a system. Your personal development plan, should also be a system.
The way you're growing your influence should be a system. All of your sales processes should be put into a system. The more you systematize and track your behavior with specific intentions working towards a specific outcome, the better the results that you'll get in every area of your life that has a system built around it will be. Developing systems for everything that's important to you is learning to master, which is called systems thinking. I was talking to my brother William Wood about this and here's what he said.
He said, systems are reliable when people are not. Go ahead and let some of the pressure go by saying out loud, people aren't perfect and neither am I. Where are you weak in a way that can be complicated and where can you strengthen that by building a system that would dramatically improve the quality and the productivity of your life? Let me share a personal example with myself, and simple non-obvious processes that I built around a weakness in my own personality. For example with myself, I don't really have any ability to spot maliciousness in other people for whatever series of reasons.
What I mean by this is for some reason, I just always assume people intend to do the best and deep down they want to do good. So I'm forgiving at a level that's just over the top sometimes. I had a business partner who once said this. He said, David's greatest weakness is that he loves people so much that he doesn't even see it when someone's going to stab him right in the back. And that's true about me.
He's right. Realizing that my lack of ability to discern negative intentions of other people causes a problem in my life actually gives me two choices. Choice number one is going to be to try to change a core part of my identity that's part of me and I actually like that part of me. After thinking through whether I really want or should change this, what I actually decided to do is I decided that it's too core to who I am and that I would rather just continue loving people in the exact same way that I always have in the past, which brings me to choice number two, which is to develop a system or series of systems to keep people who are malicious from getting too close, causing harm or even wanting to get too close. I chose option number two because that allows me to operate in a core part of my mission, which is to unconditionally love other people, but it also prevents situations that allow others to take advantage of me and others that I love in a harmful or malicious way.
Does that make sense to you? That's a system. So from a perspective of weakness, you need to ask yourself this question, is it better to change where I'm weak or is it better to build a system to make my weakness something strong? For the majority of people, I think it's better to focus in most areas of your life where you're strong if you want to prosper in your life. I've had the good pleasure in my life of listening to some of the most impactful thought leaders in the world and knowing many of them on a personal basis.
One time I was in a private seminar with John Maxwell and he said something that reframed the way that I was thinking about my own weaknesses. He said this, he said, take a look at your life and I want you to rate your natural and developed strengths from one to ten. What you're going to find is that you're going to be a one in some areas naturally and you're going to be a six or seven naturally in some other areas. Very rarely is someone naturally more than a six in anything without a developed skill that he's taken a whole life to achieve. Here's the thing, the whole world is trying to get you to focus on where you're weak, to criticize you, to try to get you to improve things you're not good at.
I'm going to tell you to stop it. Here's why. If you take your entire life to develop a natural capability and to develop skill, it will move you two or three points with a whole lifetime of hard work. If you take your entire life and you try to make the one in some areas one improvement, you might make it move from a one to a four if you really pour your heart and your soul into it. Fours earn about ten dollars an hour in North America.
However, if you take the same effort and you work on the thing you're naturally a six at, after a lifetime of work, it'll move from a six to a nine. Nines earn over a million dollars a year. So let me ask you this, would it be better to be a four at something after a lifetime of work or would it be more profitable to be a nine? Right? It's obvious, right?
I heard that and I just made a decision that I was going to develop systems around my weaknesses and focus nearly 100% of my energy on the strengths that I have in my life. The results of that decision have been a radical personal and business transformation that has reached now around the world into over 200 countries. Think about that for a second. Where are you a one naturally and where are you a six naturally? And now, where are you actually focused?
It's a good question, right? In 2011, I created a system around personal business that was doing around a million dollars a year in affiliate sales. By replicating that system through other people and technology, that has resulted in nearly 200 million dollars in sales and the creation of about 15 people that have earned over a million dollars with me. Systems thinking did that. I'm not just talking about franchising things that are working.
I'm asking you to think in systems and resolve to master systems thinking in every area of your life. Anything that you will systemize and you can track can be continuously and constantly improved and multiplied through teams of people and scaled by applying financial leverage as you refine the system and you make it work seamlessly and also automatically. Go ahead right now and take a notebook and a pen out and write down the areas of your life that you're going to commit to build systems in. And I want you to leave me your thoughts in the comments and tell me what you learned today. Tell me what you're going to apply and tell me how you're going to take this information into your own heart and mind and transform your life with it.
And I wanted you to remember that you matter. You matter.
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