"The great mystery isn't that people do..." - Quote by Peter Drucker
The great mystery isn't that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence. Strength is always specific! Nobody ever commented, for example, that the great violinist Jascha Heifetz probably couldn't play the trumpet very well.
More by Peter Drucker
“Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person - hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre - into an outstanding performer.”
“No other area offers richer opportunities for successful innovation than the unexpected success.”
“The arts alone give direct access to experience. To eliminate them from education - or worse, to tolerate them as cultural ornaments - is antieducational obscurantism. It is foisted on us by the pedants and snobs of Hellenistic Greece who considered artistic performance fit only for slaves.”
More on Strengths
“Offensively, you do what you do best and you do it again and again. Defensively, you attack your opponent's strength.”
“You cannot build performance on weaknesses. You can build only on strengths.”
“I am aware of the talent I was gifted and had to execute against it. It is just being very self aware and betting on your best strength.”
More on Performance
“I saw Danny Kaye in a movie, and he was doing voices and faces on that big, big screen and making whole audiences laugh. It was just an instant hookup.”
“Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them.”
“An institution which is financed by a budget - or which enjoys a monopoly which the customer cannot escape - is rewarded for what it deserves rather than what it earns. It is paid for 'good intentions' and 'programs'. It is paid for not alienating important constituents rather than satisfying any one group. It is misdirected by the way it is being paid into defining performance and results as what will produce the budget rather than as what will produce contribution.”