When you find out you are terrible at something how do you respond?

Over a year ago I built my first website. I spent a lot of time learning how to use WordPress, get a template and take all the necessary elements to have a beautiful website.

And after hours and days and weeks of pure pain and torture, a finished product was revealed.

And it was hideous.

And I hated it.

My saving grace was that our team had all read the Lean Startup, so I could say, “This is just an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and we will continue to iterate.”

I had a broad definition of viable.

The website was awful, and this left me with 2 options

1. I could commit to getting good at building websites

I firmly believe you can master almost anything if you have a steady, daily commitment to conquer it.

When I first learned a few guitar chords I got frustrated I couldn’t play Stairway to Heaven after 3 weeks and decided this learning process wasn’t for me and put the guitar down.

To get good at guitar would have required picking it up every sing day, learning, accepting feedback, improving and making a tiny amount of progress every day.

It was a commitment I chose not to make.

So if I wanted to get good at making websites, it was going to take the same commitment. I would have to improve every single day. And I’d have to be really bad at it for quite some time, reading and learning along the way.

And after a lot of time and a lot of work, I could become adequate at designing websites.

Or I could do option 2:

2. Admit I’m terrible at making websites, and vow to never make another one

The powerful lesson I realized is this.

I don’t need to be good at designing websites.

There are plenty of people out there that can whip up beautiful websites in no time at all and actually have fun doing it!

The website I made was about as fun as jabbing a pencil into my eye.

So why do it?

Why not find someone who is good at it and then I can focus on the things I’m actually good at?

When it came time to create the Kahuna Accounting website it was a no-brainer. I’d work with my friend Josh who is amazing, and he made an awesome website and had fun doing it.

Lesson learned.

You can be good at anything, but you can’t be good at everything

Entrepreneurship is about finding out what things you want to dominate.

Nothing is as important is being incredibly aware. We all like to convince ourselves that we are great at everything, but there is great power and freedom in admitting you suck at something.

The insanity of DIY in a connected world

I’m always amazed when we are meeting with potential clients who prefer to do their own bookkeeping.

They’re not good at it.

It takes too long.

They don’t have fun.

So why do it?

The connected world we live in gives the power for unbelievable collaboration. If there is something you need to get done in your business, but you aren’t able to do it, there is a good chance someone is literally begging to do exactly what you need.

It’s all about connection and collaboration.

Knowing where you are terrible allows you to be great

Find out what you are great at, and what gives you joy and meaning. Do that, and find others to help you with the rest. And don’t feel bad about it.

To be great takes commitment. And you can only commit to a few things. The more you spread yourself thin, the more likely you are to be mediocre at a lot of things and great at nothing.

The reality is you are terrible at some things.

You might as well admit it, be happy about it, and never do it again.

I guarantee someone else is great at that exact thing.