“A Successful Business Is Created Before There Is A Business” Robert Kiyosaki, Before You Quit Your Job.
I really started diving into this strengths stuff after I made a connection. I was watching the #49 video on Toilet Paper Entrepreneur with Amilya Antonnetti. Michael mentioned she created 6 successful companies and asked her, what does it take to succeed as an Entrepreneur and she said a phenomenal TEAM. I thought that was interesting since I had never created a phenomenal team.
So, I made that connection and found my old Kiyosaki book, Before You Quit Your Job, and in the BI Triangle on the outer area, the 3 main keys to are Team, Mission and Leadership which are all based on Strengths and Purpose.
I then proceeded to find these self assessment tests and while I was taking Steve Little’s Perfect Biz Finder Course, he talked about Ryan Blair in that. So I Googled Ryan Blair and found this video of him on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Ryan Blair created 6 million dollar companies before the age of 30. At the end of the video he basically gives these as speed tips to success, self assessment, know where your weak, surround yourself with people that are going to strengthen your weaknesses, so that you can focus all or most of your time on “your strengths”. This is exactly what Now Discover Your Strengths book talks about.
Just like an architect has a blueprint of what he’s going to build, an Entrepreneur must have a blueprint of the business he’s going to build. I’m not talking about some MBA Business Plan mumbo jumbo, its really a series of things, but one of the very first things is knowing what your talents and strengths are.
If you don’t know your own strengths and weaknesses as a person how can you ever expect to build an effective TEAM. And, how could you expect to be an effective LEADER of your team if you don’t know your strengths and weaknesses, or your Teams.
If you don’t know what your strengths and weaknesses are your going into building a business BLIND!
When you know your strengths you can eliminate the 80% of the stuff your were focusing on before and just focus on the 20% that will generate 80% of the results. Don’t ever underestimate Paretos Principle. It will save you time, frustration and keep you happy!
Your probably interested in discovering your strengths for 1 of 5 reasons:
- To be a more effective as a leader in managing and connecting with your employees
- To be more effective as an Entrepreneur in creating a successful business
- Interested in something new and want to see what business ideas your more suited for or would have better chance at excelling in
- You’ve failed miserably in prior businesses and are starting back at square one with the basics
- All the above
You may feel like, well yeah I can take these assessments but then what…
Well, you have some self-discovering to do here. You have to connect the dots. Put in a little work to learn more about yourself. Its some of the best quality time you could ever spend on yourself.
To help you with this I created 11 pages of notes in my self-discovery from all of the 4 assessments I took which are below. It has questions and exercises that will help you gain more insights to finding your strengths in addition to what it really is your seeking.
I don’t think any of these self assessment tests are better than the other. You can get great information from all of them. But you can check out each one to see which you prefer or try them all.
Below is a quick summary of each of the 4 self assessment tests. If you want to see my results and review of each assessment, click on the links below.
1. Strengths Finder 2.0 Assessment Test and Now Discover Your Strengths
Strengths Finder 2.0 is the 8th book in the Now Discover Your Strengths series and also has an updated assessment from the original Now Discover Your Strengths Test. It is suppose to be a more thorough assessment than the first assessment.
The book Now Discover Your Strengths really helped me because I believe the author had a deep knowledge of the subject and communicated it well in the book with plenty of examples. I initially bought both books but didn’t realize Strengths Finder 2.0 was just 30 pages of content and just went over the 34 themes for the rest of the book, but is still worth looking at.
I think reading the book Now Discover Your Strengths was probably the most helpful in putting the pieces of all this strength stuff together. Grab the book start reading it and then take the assessment when you come to that point in the book. By purchasing either book the assessment is free.
To see my results and review go here –> Now Discover Your Strengths Test
2. Kolbe A Index Assessment Test
I took the Kolbe A Index through Strategic Profits they call it Strengths Mastery Advantage. If you go to Kolbe.com and click to take the test you’ll see that its $47 through Kolbe.com. I took it through Strategic Profits because Rich Schefren gives you a 70 minute video where Rich talks with Amy Bruske the Executive VP of Kolbe on how to understand more about the Kolbe A Index and how to use it, a 37 page special report, 11 Ways To Leverage your Strengths and Manage your Weaknesses that gives exercises and insights I thought was helpful.
If you just take the Kolbe A Index Assessment you will get a strengths assessment results presentation which is basically a powerpoint of 27 slides that explains it more. I think for most people if you don’t get some kind of clarifications on the results, taking the test my not be beneficial as you’ll be wondering what the results mean and what to do with them.
So that’s my reason for taking it through Rich Schefren. The online store at Kolbe.com also has audios that explain more on this but I didn’t purchase any of them, they may also help with clarifications on your index results. You can get a good deal on Kolbe audios if you go to Audible.
To see my results and review go here –> Kolbe A Index Test
3. Wealth Dynamics Assessment
Many people probably haven’t heard of this test as the creator doesn’t live in the US.
The assessment is based on the I-Ching developed in China, which also helped Carl Jung develop some of his original theories in psychology.
Created by Roger James Hamilton and used by over 24,000 entrepreneurs around the world, it guides us to our path of least resistance. The wealth dynamics assessment is really focused for Entrepreneurs.
The starting point is understanding that there are only 8 ways to create true wealth and each of these ways has certain rules when followed that produce optimal results. The two questions that we need to ask ourselves are:
- Which path to wealth suits our natural character and personality best…?
- Once we know which path to wealth is best for us, what are the steps we should take and what are the rules for the particular wealth creation game…?
To see my results and review go here –> Wealth Dynamics Profile Test
4. Perfect Biz Finder Assessment and Course Manual
Go to The Perfect Biz Finder. You can take an assessment and get back results for free within 20 minutes or less. It gives you a report for exploring potential opportunities.
In the summary worksheet it defines 10 major industries and gives scores for each one. Administrative, Counseling, Entrepreneur, Manager, Medical, Production, Sales, Service, Technical and Training.
Your top 4 industries will probably be obvious to you. The key in this assessment is to read each Performance Competency and only really focus on your high scores. Take notes on what you find. This assessment can be very helpful you just have to study the results and write down your insights you get from each Performance Competency.
Another part to the Perfect Biz Finder is their course manual. Its structured to educate with stories and examples and then asks you questions and gives your exercises. Its structured for 21 days.
To see my results and review go here –> The Perfect Biz Finder
Related posts:
- My Review and Results of The Perfect Biz Finder – How To Find Your Perfect Business in 21 Days or Less The Perfect Biz Finder was created by Steve Little. Steve has had success as an Entrepreneur with several businesses,...
- My Kolbe A Index Test Results and Review Taken Through Strengths Mastery Advantage The Kolbe A Index Test was created by Kathy Kolbe, roughly 30 years ago. Kathy also wrote these books...
- Now Discover Your Strengths Test Results and Review First some clarification. I’m sure a lot of people have questions and confusion on all the Strengths Books. Here...
- Why You Must Work On Your Weaknesses in Every Area of Your Life Except For Business You’ve most likely heard this, just focus on your strengths. 20% of your work will generate 80% of your results....
- My Wealth Dynamics Profile Test Results and Review The Wealth Dynamics profile test was created by Roger Hamilton. Asia’s leading wealth consultant. He’s the author of Wink...
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Paul,
For me, taking all the self assessment tests were well worth the time, effort and cost involved.
The cost is very cheap compared to what you can learn. But it does take some self-discovery time
and effort after taking each assessment. Because if you just look at your results your gonna be like,
well that really helped… that’s why each assessment has some form of clarification for their assessment
to provide more clarity on how people can apply and use this stuff in the real world.
Anytime you can learn more about yourself the better as its a high lifetime value investment.
Plus, you get different insights from taking each self assessment test. Something you might
have not learned otherwise if you just took one of the assessments.
Finding your strengths and applying that to knowing what you really want to do is one of the highest
leveraged activities you can do. So yeah, its really important stuff as most people put work first and life second
and never really apply their strengths.
If I could only take on self assessment test I would take Wealth Dynamics. But if you want to be an entrepreneur
and start and run a successful business I would also look at the Kolbe A Index and Strengths Finder 2.0.
You’ll be a smarter entrepreneur if you take all three plus by using Kolbe you can make better hiring decisions.
For someone that’s looking for a better job or wants to change careers I would take the Kolbe A Index followed by Kolbe MO as
it gives specific careers that fit your natural strengths.
Curt
I’m impressed with you doing all four strengths tests.
Do you think that they each added something worth the time, effort and cost involved?
And if you were to only do one, which would it be?