Everyone Has a Superpower (You Just Don't Know Yours Yet)
How to find your unfair advantage and weaponize it for success
I was terrible at math in high school.
Like, genuinely bad.
The kind of bad where you sit in the back row hoping the teacher forgets you exist.
While everyone else was breezing through calculus, I was struggling with basic algebra.
But I could talk to anyone.
I was extremely well liked by everyone.
I negotiated my way out of detentions.
I convinced my boss at my shitty part-time job to give me weekends off.
Thought it was just luck.
It wasn't luck.
It was my competitive advantage, and I didn't realize it for years.
Reverse Engineering Works (But Only If You Know Your Starting Point)
Most people understand reverse engineering.
Find someone who's already where you want to be
Figure out what they did
Copy those steps.
Modify for your situation.
Follow the blueprint.
It's one of the fastest ways to achieve any goal.
But reverse engineering only works if you know what tools you're starting with.
Imagine trying to build a house using someone else's blueprint, but you've got a completely different set of tools in your garage.
They used a nail gun, you've got a welding torch.
Their plan doesn't account for what you're actually good at.
You end up forcing yourself into a framework that fights against your natural abilities.
That's what most people do with their careers.
They copy someone else's path without ever asking the critical question:
What am I naturally better at than other people?
The thing is, everyone has unique advantages.
Literally everyone.
No exceptions.
Most people just never identify them because they're looking in the wrong places.
Your Disadvantages Are Obvious (Your Advantages Are Invisible)
We're wired to notice what we suck at.
Evolution made us hyperfocused on threats and weaknesses.
You bombed that presentation five years ago?
Your brain still replays it at 3 AM.
But the thing you're naturally good at?
You barely notice it because it feels easy.
That's the trap.
The things that come easily to you don't feel valuable because they don't require effort.
Meanwhile, you're busy torturing yourself trying to improve weaknesses while your actual superpowers collect dust.
Think back to school.
Not just academics - the whole experience.
What did other people struggle with that you found stupidly easy?
Maybe everyone else stressed about group projects while you naturally coordinated teams and delegated tasks.
Maybe you were the one who could fix anyone's computer without thinking about it.
Maybe you could remember facts effortlessly while others made flashcards.
Maybe you were the athletic one, the charismatic one, the creative one who saw solutions others missed.
Take Michael Dubin, founder of Dollar Shave Club.
Guy had a background in improv comedy - not exactly a traditional business credential.
But when he needed to launch his shaving subscription service, he didn't try to become a marketing expert.
He leveraged his comedic skills to create a viral video that got millions of views and raised $9.8 million in a year.
He weaponized what he was already good at instead of forcing himself into someone else's playbook.
Or look at Leah Busque Solivan who started TaskRabbit.
She wasn't solving some massive market problem identified through data analysis.
She needed someone to run an errand and thought "why isn't there an app for this?"
Her advantage was seeing the obvious thing everyone else overlooked.
This in turned created a $50 million business before Uber and DoorDash made the gig economy mainstream.
These people didn't succeed despite their unconventional advantages.
They succeeded because of them.
The Excavation Process
Grab a pen and paper.
Not your phone - actual pen and paper.
You're going to do some archaeology on yourself.
Write down every single thing you've ever been better at than most people.
Don't filter it.
Don't decide whether it's valuable or not.
Just write.
What did you struggle with?
What did you excel at?
What did other people find hard that you didn't?
Be specific.
"I was good at sports" isn't specific enough.
Were you good at coordinating team strategy?
Reading opponents?
Staying calm under pressure?
Physical endurance?
Each of those is a different advantage with different applications.
Maybe you weren't academic, but you could build shit with your hands.
That's spatial reasoning and manual dexterity - advantages that apply way beyond woodworking.
Maybe you had social anxiety around groups but could have deep one-on-one conversations.
That's empathy and focus - massive advantages in coaching, therapy, sales, consulting.
Once you've got your list, you're going to do something most people never do.
You're going to let AI interview you.
Here’s your prompt:
I need you to help me identify my unique skill set that can be applicable to my career or business. I want you to interview me asking me questions one by one and then identify what is my unique advantage and how can that help me in my career or my business to make more money. Clarify my goals and then begin the interview with the first question.
Then actually do it.
Answer the questions honestly.
Go back and forth.
Let it dig deeper.
The AI will ask follow-ups you wouldn't think to ask yourself.
It'll connect dots between seemingly unrelated strengths.
It'll see patterns you're too close to notice.
This isn't about letting AI think for you.
You're using it like a mirror that shows you what you can't see on your own.
It adds narrative to scattered thoughts.
It gives you clarity on advantages you've had all along but never named.
If you're happy with your current career or business, tell it that.
If you want to pivot into a different area or company, tell it that too.
Give it all the context.
The more specific you are, the better it can help you see how your advantages apply.
When it outputs its analysis, you'll have something most people never get.
A clear picture of your competitive advantage and how it maps to opportunity.
The Weaponization Phase
Now you know your superpower.
Now you know how it applies to where you want to go.
This is where reverse engineering comes back in.
Find the people who've achieved what you want to achieve.
But this time, you're not just copying their steps.
You're looking at how your specific advantage changes the path.
You can literally ask AI to do this for you.
Tell it your goal and say:
With my unique advantage in mind, help me reverse engineer what I can do to achieve this goal.
Maybe the standard path to your goal involves heavy data analysis, but your advantage is relationship building.
The AI might suggest a modified path that leans into partnerships and collaborations instead of solo number-crunching.
Same destination, different vehicle.
This is how you actually compete.
Not by trying to be good at everything.
Not by forcing yourself into someone else's framework.
By identifying what you're naturally better at and deploying it ruthlessly.
Google figured this out years ago.
Instead of hiring based on resumes and traditional interviews like everyone else, they used psychometric testing to match personality traits to roles.
Unconventional as hell.
Result?
25% higher retention, 77% higher productivity, and significantly better innovation.
They weaponized an advantage - data-driven HR - that other companies ignored.
Warby Parker didn't try to compete with traditional eyewear companies on their terms.
They introduced home try-on programs, something that leveraged their advantage in customer experience and trust-building.
Different game, same industry.
You don't win by being slightly better at what everyone else is doing.
You win by being dramatically better at something only you can do.
The Implementation Is Still On You
AI can help you see clearly.
It can't do the work for you.
Once you know your advantage and how it applies, you still have to implement.
You still have to take the steps.
You still have to put in the hours.
But now you're putting hours into the right thing.
The thing you're actually built for instead of the thing you think you're supposed to do.
Most people waste years trying to fix weaknesses that don't matter while ignoring strengths that could change everything.
They follow blueprints designed for people with different tools.
They wonder why success feels like pushing a boulder uphill.
It doesn't have to be that way.
You have advantages other people don't.
Skills that came so naturally you never thought they counted.
Personality traits that feel normal to you but are rare as hell in the real world.
Combinations of abilities that make you fundamentally different from everyone else trying to do what you're doing.
The only question is whether you're going to identify them and use them, or keep pretending you're supposed to be good at the same things as everyone else.
Grab the pen.
Make the list.
Run the interview.
Figure out your superpower.
Then reverse engineer your path using the tools you actually have instead of the tools you wish you had.
Stop trying to be the best at a skill you struggle with.
Just be better than everyone at the specific thing only you can do.