Apple: A crispy, crunchy yet sweet fruit, which can be eaten as is, with the peel still on the fruit. Can’t be broken into segments by hand – you need a knife to do this. Can even be used in cooking, on salads and also even great for making pie. Gives the teeth a little clean at the same time and freshens the breath while providing many valuable and healthy nutrients. Very difficult to make juice by hand with, but easy to pick the good from the bad as it’s bruises show clearly on the skin.
Orange: Needs to be peeled to be eaten, but can also be broken into nice little segments so you can share with a friend. No knife required. Not as crunchy as the apple, but juicier and more thirst quenching. Provides it’s own unique set of healthy nutrients. Easy to make fruit juice from by hand. Not so good for making pie with. Hides it’s quality under the skin and could be a bad watery orange, and you just won’t know until you eat it.
These are some of the clear difference in the two fruits above. I’m sure you can add more.
But none of us would want a combined Apple and Orange into one type of fruit. An ‘Appage’ or an ‘Orpple’ anyone?
We wouldn’t want this because we understand the unique benefits of each, and they both have their value as part of our diet. In fact we feel like, and need both apples and oranges at different times. To add the benefits of one of these fruits to the other fruit, would by definition diminish the original benefits. So why is it that we are constantly told to work on our weaknesses as if they are the holy grail of success in life? As entrepreneurs we are far better off focusing on our strengths the same way fruit does.
Should we try and improve? No doubt. But to obsess over a weakness is to ignore your given talents. What they don’t tell you is that anyone who has ever achieved anything, did it via leveraging strengths. And it isn’t without irony that the apple and the orange happen to go very well together.
Startup blog says: Outsource weaknesses, focus on strengths.
