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“Everyone’s genius is right next to their dysfunction” — Graham Duncan, East Rock Capital Co-Founder

My favorite episode of SpongeBob SquarePants is S04E11 “Patrick SmartPants.” In this episode, Patrick accidentally replaces his brain with a piece of brain coral after a jelly fishing accident (ignore the logic here, it’s a kids show). Patrick, who is known for his stupidity, immediately becomes a genius.

Over the course of the episode, we watch Patrick transform from the character we know and love into something totally different. The consequences for Patrick are immense; he drives his friends away, forgets how to have fun, and agonizes over how to regain his old self. By the end of the episode, Patrick finds himself, realizing that his stupidity was what made him so special, after all. In other words, his fatal character flaw was actually his strength.

Animated starfish or not, each one of us has our own character flaws. But instead of trying to fix our flaws, we should focus on capitalizing on our strengths. Because the fact of the matter is, they are not that different.

If we spend too much time trying to overcome our weaknesses, we will lose the strength that that weakness created. Our strengths and our weaknesses balance each other out, so if you minimize your weakness you will also be minimizing your strength. We all have strengths and weaknesses, that’s part of what makes us human. We should embrace both.

The next time someone asks you in a job interview about your weaknesses, reply with your strengths. You may not work well with others, but that means you are great at independent work. You may have a tough time speaking up, but that means that when you do, you probably have something meaningful to say. Or maybe you spread yourself too thin, but you are great at time management.

Embrace your weaknesses. They are what make you strong, after all.