Success is acheived by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.

- Marilyn vos Savant (American Journalist)

I have learned lately that as you get further and further into your respective field or industry, some of the most important things you will learn are about yourself. You will realize what your own strengths and weaknesses are and this is an incredibly valuable lesson to learn. You’ll figure out what you’re good at, what you aren’t so good at, what you enjoy, what you can’t stand, what you don’t mind, and what you’re asked to do because your the best at it.

I think it’s invaluable to realize what you want to do in life and in your respective career and what you don’t want to do. It’s also just as important to recognize what you are aren’t great at, as it is to know where your strengths lie.  

I had decided this a couple months ago, as I analyzed my own strengths and weaknesses in the field of public relations, and I was recently given an amazing bit of advice that backed up my own belief.  Many management programs will focus on strength and weaknesses and once you can label what those are for you, they focus you on your weaknesses with the intention on improving you and making you better and more able in those areas. Now – this may sound like a great idea, but this smart and successful woman giving me this advice painted a different picture for me. Why in the world would you categorize your strengths and weakness and what you enjoy vs. what you don’t, only to zero in on what you’re bad at? If you are a great writer, and a great speaker, why in the world wouldn’t you focus on those areas in order to better yourself, and get better in an area where you clearly have talent? If you can think on your feet, and are a fantastic sales person, or pitcher – then why would you sit yourself down and put pen to paper (or typing fingers to mac book air… whatever) and force yourself to learn to be a good writer? Exactly. You wouldn’t, or at least you wouldn’t enjoy it.

It makes very little sense to focus on the negative and/or weakness and beat yourself up for it. The clarity and sense is in focusing on what you love to do, and improving on that skill that you are good at until you can rightfully call it an area of expertise.

I’ve taken this lessons and I am letting it direct the rest of my career. Money shouldn’t lead you, acheiving fame shouldn’t direct your path, happiness and contentment – enjoyment in the workplace SHOULD! So figure out what you love to do – and if you learn to do that well, the money and success will soon catch up to you.

At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.

- Friedrich Nietzsche (German Classical Scholar, Philosopher & Critic of Culture 1844-1900).

I decided to take a minute to highlight my latest endeavor, joining the team at SocialDreamium. SocialDreamium is a privately-held Milwaukee-based company committed to building strong web-based communities centered around a companies products and services.  Started in October of last year by my brother Ryan Graves, and quickly expanding. I jumped on board a little over a month ago to help author the blog, (Get Audience, Get Going, where you will often see my posts from this site as well), assist with client writing (as we start to build a client base), and editorial assistance to what eventually will be a SocialDreamium book entitled,”The Dream in Action”. (I’ll keep you posted!)

At SocialDreamium, we believe in the power of the collective social web. It’s what we love and have a passion for, and want to help others understand.. and then utilize for their brand.  We also love people and we see the internet as a way to meet more people and create value for these businesses. We work to create two way relationships and conversation between our clients and their customers.  I hav posted before about online communities, and what that means. SocialDreamium dives into this concept and works to first create and then managing these communities. It is so much about listening and contributing to the networks that exist, and we help our companies to do this. We also help companies to develop a successful blog for their brand and build a social web presence that they can stand on.  Through these outlets we allow our clients to grow a relationship with their customers.  We also now have a larger team that allows us to build web based software to help you manage your community.  Currently, the SocialDreamium team is made up of Ryan (in Milwaukee), David Abrahams and Dien Nguyen in Sydney, Australia and myself in San Diego. We’re still growing and looking for great writers and developers to join our ranks…(e-mail taylor@socialdreamium.com)

SocialDreamium currently has a working relationship with SOHO Magazine (out of Milwauke), and our clientel includes of SOHObiztube.com and budgetpulse.com — check ‘em out! It’s all very exciting I know… just wanted to keep you all in the know, and I will keep you posted as this exciting new start up gains speed!

Now, when we take that concept of ghost writing and apply it to blogs, do our feelings about it change at all? Is it okay for a team/staff to blog for their company’s CEO? It’s fairly common that bloggers are getting jobs writing blog posts for corporate executives too busy or inarticulate to do it themselves.  So are we learning to accept this? My thoughts are this: What if we want to hear from someone who just doesn’t have the time to connect with us on a daily basis?  Wouldn’t we willingly accept a briefing from their staff or team? After all, who better to tell us what Barama was up leading up to the election than his campaign manager?

While my thoughts, opinion and research on this subject are not even close to being decided or completed… for now my consensus is this: there is a middle ground.  For now I’d have to semi-disagree with this angle of thought — Rory Cellan-Jones quotes Tom Coats in The Business of Blogging, “The value of having a blog as an executive is to have a conversation with the people who use your products, to be part of the community and to talk honestly. To have it ghost-written is utterly pointless.”  I think that while it is extremely important for company or brand’s blogs to maintain an honest and authentic tone the main thing is that the CONTENT of the blog needs to come from Barama himself. However, if our president elect is dictating/interviewing with a staffer who then takes it to the keyboard… if that’s what it takes to get the content and info to me. I’ll take it.

But… what do YOU think???