George Constanza was a loser. Hilarious and lovable, true. But a bum.

In one episode he’s sitting with Jerry after recently losing his job. They’re talking about what George might want to do and what he’s good at. It goes something like this:

Jerry: “So what do you like? What are your hobbies?”

George: “I like baseball.”

Jerry: “OK, and what could you do in baseball?”

George: “I could manage a team.”

At least George got the “think big” part of being successful. Entrepreneurs and small business owners need to dream in order to succeed. Of course there’s dreaming and there’s delusion…

We all know George was hopeless, but luckily that’s a rare affliction. What George should have done was play to his strengths. (Granted, he would have needed to find a job that involved lying, cheating, sweating and obsessing…)

For the rest of us normal folk (yup, you’re included!) we need to properly identify, quantify and use our strengths.

1. What are your strengths? List them out. It’ll help.
2. How do you know those are your strengths? Did others tell you? Have you always believed those were your strengths? Have you accomplished certain tasks/goals that indicate your strengths?
3. What’s your #1 strength? Try ranking your strengths. It sounds a bit silly but it works. Keep this mental list. It’ll come in handy often; job interviews, hiring people, networking, etc.
4. What areas of expertise, jobs or business opportunities do your strengths lend themselves to? We can’t all be NHL hockey players (as much as we want to!) but for every strength there are numerous areas of use.

I know you’ve already got your goals lined up for 2007 right? Now you can align those goals and your strengths. Doing so will help you achieve your goals…even if you’ve got a bit of George Constanza in you.