No, one simple weakness cannot hold you back. Focusing on strengths can overtake just one weakness. If strengths are developed and garner attention, they can outweigh the weakness. Spending time on weaknesses puts you in a position to spend time doing things you do not do well instead of spending time on things at which you excel. Value is created by doing things well, not by doing things poorly. A strategy of addressing weaknesses leads to mediocrity and being average.

The masters of their craft are singularly focused on one thing and spend all their energy getting better at that. The great artists, the great musicians, the chess masters focus on their craft. They think about it constantly, work to improve the finest of details and seek great depths of understanding. The law of 10,000 hours states that it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a subject. That means you must spend 10,000 hours doing one thing, not 10,000 hours doing something. If we live long enough we will all spend 10,000 hours doing something or everything. However, we may not spend 10,000 hours mastering just one thing. So it’s not about having one weakness and worrying about it holding you back, it’s about dismissing that weakness to focus on your strength. Become a master of those strengths, not moving a weakness from a rating of poor to fair.

If I master a specific subject or skill, how could one weakness hold me back?  After all, I have mastered my craft. As long as I pursue opportunities that align with those strengths, how could I fail? As a master, I would surely succeed.