“ EVERY LIMIT IS A BEGINNING AS WELL AS AN ENDING.”- George Eliot
to do both. However, there are a number of problems with this approach. Most importantly, since weaknesses and strengths are linked, attempting to fix a weakness can actually diminish the corresponding strength. This fact is best illustrated by the discount retail industry.
Walmart’ s main strength is low prices and its weaknesses include poor quality merchandise, long lines and unhelpful employees. On the other hand, Target’ s main strengths are higher quality products from well-known designers, attractive stores and helpful associates who are quick to open a new checkout lane. Unfortunately, Target’ s weakness is that its prices are not as low as those at Walmart.
So, what would happen if Walmart tried to do both? What if they tried to build on their strengths and fix their weaknesses? What would happen to their low prices, their primary strength, as they added better products and extra employees at the registers? The answer is simple, their prices would climb, thus diminishing their strength.
Similarly, what if Target decided to fix their weakness by lowering prices? What would happen to the level of customer service and the great products that give them their advantage if they focused more on cost cutting? Again, the answer is straightforward, their quality and service would decrease, thus diminishing their strength.
If you don’ t believe me, just look at Kmart.
Kmart provides an illustration of what happens when a company, or individual, loses focus and tries to do both. Their historical leadership in discount retail was based on the blue-light special, a symbol of low prices. However, they did not focus exclusively on this price advantage and began to lose customers to Walmart.
Kmart then began adding designer products from celebrities like Martha
Stewart, but wasn’ t quite ready to shed their low-price image. This allowed Target to capture higher-income customers that were design conscious. Kmart’ s failure to focus ultimately led to bankruptcy. They weren’ t the best at anything, so customers had no reason to shop there. Their failure illustrates the dangers of doing both, of trying to be well-rounded.
There is a compelling reason to go to Walmart, low prices. There is a compelling reason to go to Target, a better shopping experience. There is not a compelling reason to go to Kmart, so people don’ t.
This is very important. If you try to be everything to everybody, you’ ll end up being nothing to nobody.
3. APPRECIATION- We succeed because of our weaknesses, not in spite of them.
Dyslexia is a disability. People with dyslexia get letters and words mixed up and this leads to major problems with reading and writing. This, in turn, is a major barrier to success. Or is it?
A recent study showed that 35 % of small business owners have dyslexia. This is surprising because only 10 % of Americans have dyslexia, but they make up more than 33 % of entrepreneurs in the US.
Another study found that people with dyslexia are far more likely to become millionaires. In fact, almost half of the millionaires in the study had dyslexia. Examples of wealthy dyslexics include Virgin founder, Richard Branson, JetBlue founder, David Neeleman, and Kinko’ s founder, Paul Orfalea. The subtitle of Orfalea’ s book is Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic who Turned a Bright Idea into One of America’ s Best Companies.
How does this happen? What explains their success?
It seems that dyslexia is a two-edged sword. The obvious weaknesses are
SPRING 2016
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