“Our definition of a weakness is anything that gets in the way of excellent performance.”

“Third, you will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses. This is not the same as saying 'ignore your weaknesses.”

“When we studied them, excellent performers were rarely well rounded. On the contrary, they were sharp.”

“The definition of a strength that we will use throughout this book is quite specific: consistent near perfect performance in an activity.”

“Skills are so enticingly helpful that they obscure their two flaws. The first flaw is that while skills will help you perform, they will not help you excel.”

“The point here is not that you should always forgo this kind of weakness fixing. The point is that you should see it for what it is: damage control, not development. And as we mentioned earlier, damage control can prevent failure, but it will never elevate you to excellence.”

“Each of these strategies-get a little better at it, design a support system, use one of your strongest themes to overwhelm your weakness, find a partner, and just stop doing it-can help you as you strive to build your life around your strengths.”