Attraction Marketers: Cultivate Your Idiosyncrasy & Outsource
Dr. Hale here. I’d like to share today a booklet that I read in the 70’s. It had a profound influence on my thinking and education and what I should study. The topic was cultivating your idiosyncrasy. Another way of saying this is to “play to your strengths” or “raise you peaks.” I wrote another post recently about finding “your secret.” This was another way of finding and emphasizing your idiosyncrasy
Dr. Benjamin’s School for Animals
(Read a little – there is definitely a point in here for YOU and your idiosyncrasy.)
The Sabre Tooth Curriculum –
Dr. Harold Benjamin wrote a classic book on education. Writing as J. Abner Peddiwell he wrote “The Sabre Tooth Curriculum.” Here he chided the educational institutions of the world for continuing to teach courses “the way they had always been done.” He used the allegory of teaching children to survive Sabre Tooth Tiger attacks. After the Tiger species became extinct the curriculum converted “practical education” to “philosophical and theological education” and continued to teach the same ol’, same ol’.
The School for Animals –
In his booklet on Idiosyncrasies, he uses the allegory of a School for Animals. This school was for the forest creatures. The school took the pups, kits, fledglings and minnows and gave them a basic education. It was a no nonsense school that attempted to give all students a common foundation. The major courses consisted of swimming, flying, running, and climbing. The students were required to pass each of these basic courses.
Flying Squirrel –
Dr. Benjamin gave the example of the Flying Squirrel who came very close to graduating at the head of his class. He excelled at climbing, running and was adequate at swimming. A problem arose when the flying instructor noted that the squirrel was not really flying but was in fact gliding. Day after day the instructors worked with the squirrel to teach him the basic flying skill called “taking off from the ground.” This skill was required to pass the course. It said so right there in the syllabus. Eventually the squirrel developed such severe Charley Horses in his legs that he had to withdraw from school and eventually he starved since he could no longer collect nuts and store them. He was cheerful until the end and much loved by the teachers and the students.
The Eagle –
The Eagle graduated at the top of the class although his attitude toward swimming and climbing left much to be desired.
The Badger –
The parents of the badger withdrew their child from the school since the faculty refused to add digging to the curriculum.
You can read more about Cultivating Your Idiosyncrasy here.
The Point – Cultivate Your Idiosyncrasy – do NOT Concentrate on your Weaknesses.
As he looked at the topic of your idiosyncrasies, Dr. Benjamin strongly felt that we should be developing and concentrating on our strengths rather than our weaknesses, enhance our idiosyncrasies and not our commonalities.. He used the analogy trying to fill the valleys, or raising our peaks. He felt we should raise the peaks. The runoff from the peaks will naturally fill the valleys. To give one example, the child who is a math savant will learn to read in order to study math books.
The Real World
In the real world I observed this over and over. When I hired someone, I was looking for the highest peak I could find to fill in the valleys in my organization. I really didn’t care if the secretary could also program a computer or if the computer programmer could take dictation. I wanted one set of skills (peaks) from one person and another set of peaks from the other.
Find your idiosyncrasies. If you excel at flying, learn to fly higher, longer and better. If you excel at writing, learn to write better.
“What about my weaknesses?” you might ask. Outsource those rascals!. Http://Fiverr.com (for little things) and http://oDesk.com for larger projects (like setting up your blog) are excellent resources.
You idiosyncrasies and specialties are what will make you stand out! (besides you love to learn more about your specialty.)
As a parting note, I will mention that you should know at least something about the foundations of your business. I just don’t want you to waste your time and energy on things that you hate when you could be Flying with the Eagle or Swimming with the Fish.
That’s it for today – Find and cultivate your idiosyncrasy – outsource your weakness.
Until next time, you have a Great Day!
↓ ↓ If this post gave you some ideas – Go ahead & comment below. ↓ ↓
Hale Pringle – Hale Yes!
Skype hale.pringle
Email: HaleYes@HalePringle.com
P.S. If you are working to move your business online and it all seems overwhelming, I can help! Take a look at http://HalePringle.com, or sign up for the free coaching call. You can email me or give me a Skype call. I’ll give you the benefit of my years of experience and many thousands of dollars in training and searching the rabbit hole called Internet Marketing and Network Marketing. I can help you with Lead Generation, the feeling of overwhelm, blogging, and even career change. Add that to the finest mentoring on the Internet (Ann Sieg’s Team and Inner Circle) and you have a Winner!
That was a really interesting read.
I have taken some great tips from this – thanks
Rebecca from the UBC
Great analogy Dr Hale. What an awesome reminder that we should be “developing and concentrating on our strengths rather than our weaknesses”, when it is so often the other way around..
Sigrid McNab recently posted..Five Career Myths Exploded
Couldn’t have said it better myself. 🙂 Thanks Sigrid,
Regards,
Dr. Hale
I love the way you put this post together. I’ve always believed that the way to make a high flying team is to focus on each one’s strengths. Managers don’t often get that and constantly focus on strengthening weaknesses – a complete waste of time.
Suzy recently posted..UBC Day 14 – GBE2 15 Minute free write
Thank you Suzy,
It never made much sense to worry that an Eagle didn’t swim well and yet we see it all the time. I particularly get annoyed when I see children who excel at something removed from that training since “they are good enough already and we can use the time for something important!” GRRRRRRR
Thanks
Dr. Hale
I enjoyed your positive way of looking at abilities. I’m a Pollyanna type myself and concentrate on my attributes without thinking. Your examples are awesome. I guess one of your strengths is to communicate well.
Thank you Francene,
That was very nice of you.
I’ll take positive comments any day 🙂
Hope You’ll drop by again,
Dr. Hale
Hi Dr Hale,
Very interesting topic. I totally agree with this. It’s better to be great at one thing than mediocre at many things, because at the end of the day, the best of the best will make it through in whatever field they are trying to make it.
We are too many people on this planet, nowadays, to let ourselves be just OK if we want to truly succeed, because people are looking for the BEST in whatever it is that they are looking for.
If you are a writer, you bet, strive to be the best writer you can be. That’s what I do. For example, I pay someone to do the tech stuff, because I have no time for this, I’d rather work at being the best writer I can be and improve that set of skills of mine rather than learn to be a very bad tech person.
Thanks for this great topic!
Sylviane Nuccio recently posted..Article Marketing Then And Now What’s The Difference?
Sylviane,
As I noted in the article, that booklet has influenced the way I think. Strengthening your strengths makes you outstanding, at least in one area. Seems like the right think to do to me.
Regards,
Dr. Hale
This was very interesting Dr. Hale and some great tips. Thanks!
Mystiqua@in Pursuit of Titus 2 recently posted..New Year, New Beginning Series: Wellness for Moms Week
Glad you liked it.
I try and outsource as much as I can. It sure saves my time and energy.
Regards,
Dr. Hale
Hi Dr. Hale! As always, a very insightful and fun blog post with lessons to take to heart. Focus on those idiosyncrasies!! Love the image you chose as well:)
Welcome to my little corner of the world Kathleen.
Glad you enjoyed the post. I enjoyed writing it, even if the image of wearing the sign was a little uncomfortable for me 🙂
Regards,
Dr. Hale