Imagine what you could learn by interviewing 2 million people about their strengths*

Guided by the belief that good is the opposite of bad, mankind has for centuries pursued its fixation with fault and failing. Doctors have studied disease in order to learn about health. Psychologists have investigated sadness in order to learn about joy. Therapists have looked into the causes of divorce in order to learn about happy marriage. In schools and workplaces around the world, each one of us has been encouraged to identify analyse and correct our weaknesses in order to become strong.

This advice is well intended but misguided. Faults and failings deserve study, but they reveal nothing about strengths.

Strengths have their own patterns. To excel in your chosen field and to find lasting satisfaction in doing so, you will need to understand your unique patterns. You will need to become an expert at finding and describing and applying and practicing and refining your strengths.

 There are two assumptions that guide the world's best managers:

1.      Each person's talents are enduring and unique

2.      Each person's greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.

 The International best-seller: Now discover your Strengths. Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

*The Gallup organisation over 30 years conducted a systematic study of excellence, each of those interviews(over 2 million) consisted of a series of open ended questions of performers in different fields.