I am a small business owner entering my 10th year of business on June 1, 2009, and I often find myself getting invited to speak about the topic of entrepreneurial success. I was recently honored to be one of six panelists hosted by Colorado College. All six of us graduated from CC, and we were anywhere from 10 – 30+ years in business.

I recommend this book any chance I get, because it has made such a positive difference in my perspective!

In order to actively live your strengths, you first must know what they are. There are many great tools and assessments out there – and my absolute favorite (hands down) is the one made popular by Marcus Buckingham’s book Now, Discover Your Strengths. When I found this book in 2001, I was one year into my business (720MEDIA – a web design and marketing firm I co-founded). I learned that my five top strengths are:

1. Command: People strong in the Command theme have presence. They can take control of a situation and make decisions.
2. Strategic: People strong in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
3. Maximizer: People strong in the Maximizer theme focus on strengths as a way to stimulate personal and group excellence. They seek to transform something strong into something superb.
4. Futuristic: People strong in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.
5. Achiever: People strong in the Achiever theme have a great deal of stamina and work hard. They take great satisfaction from being busy and productive.

To this day, I still keep a copy of this summary taped to the wall in my office – as a daily reminder of where and how I need to spend the majority of my time. This sort of focus has enabled me to achieve the levels of success I knew were possible! I look forward to connecting with others in search of the stability and success you can achieve when living a life based on your strengths.

Have you discovered your strengths? Share your story!

Click the image above to see a closer look at the results of my Emergentics test. According to the Complete Intelligence website:

• Emergenetics® is based on research that indicates we are born “pre-wired” with traits to act and think in certain ways, and we modify the traits as we interact with our environment.
• The combination of our experiences and genetics intertwine to form some commonly recognizable patterns.

Combining Emergentics and the Living Your Strengths Philosophy

For the past several years, I have actively combined Emergenetics details with my inherent strengths. I’ve realized that since I am as Analytical as I am Conceptual, I can use this combination in my role as a web designer and marketing consultant at 720MEDIA.

Emergenetics is useful because it helps you gain insight about yourself in these key areas:

• Expressiveness
• Assertiveness
• Flexibility
• Analytical
• Logical
• Thinking
• Conceptual
• Behaviorial

On a daily basis, I use my strengths as a natural problem-solver in equal balance with my intuition about ideas. Since I’m in a job where I live my strengths, my energy level and personal satisfaction are high.