Knowing My Freak Factors

I have just completed reading David Rendall's Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness. A compelling heart-warmer that praises the faults that we think we have, the essay addressed various different key points to embrace your weaknesses, build your strengths, and flaunting your uniqueness. After completing the reading, I decided to assess these key points and figured out which ones I could relate to best. Much of what I read were things I had already heard, but, nevertheless, Rendall had made some good points. Here were my findings:

#5: Foundation Build On Your Strengths
I definitely agreed with Rendall's comment on building on your strengths. Particularly as a media student, I find it important to realize your strengths, continue improving them, and also capitalizing on them. Join groups! Become involved with your strengths! Let people know about your strengths! I can personally attest to building on my strengths as an artist. This year, I founded a non-profit organization in which I make graphics for people throughout the hip hop and music community. By developing this organization, I have built on my strengths as an artist, using Adobe Photoshop more than I ever had before, allowing me to get more skilled in the software. People have come to me to do their album covers, logos, and even concert posters over the past six months. By building on my strengths, I have allowed myself to be a go-to-guy on the campus for my artwork. I have been quite pleased by building on such strengths.



An album cover I made for hip hop artist Zack "IZ" Eisenfeld




A graphic I made paying homage to hip hop artist Lil B





















#6 Focus: You Can't Do Both
Unlike his last point he made, I strongly disagree with Rendall's point on focusing and not being able to do "both." He discusses how much time and energy it takes to focus on one thing alone and building strengths within it. He even mentions that it is a fallacy to be well rounded and a fact to be mediocre in many things. All of this I disagree with. My director for the radio station I worked at said "If you're not able to do all that you're trying to do, you're sleeping too much." If you truly are dedicated, motivated, and have the drive, I feel that you CAN do both or more than both. Another part of my organization is that I have a radio station, make music videos, and promote artists' music. While I have not built on these strengths entirely, I still have put a great deal of energy with them and a great amount of time. If people aren't fulfilling all they want to, I believe they are sleeping too much.

#7 Find The Right Spot
This was another point that strongly agreed with. Rendall talks about finding the right spot to really channel your strengths and flaunting your weaknesses. He alludes to Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer, mentioning that Rudolph's flaw was turned into a strength once he worked for Santa, guiding his sleigh. Similarly, if we access places that can really nurture our talents (and even flaws), it may overall strengthen our creativity, self-esteem, and identity. For example, I am a member of Hip Hop Congress. However, I cannot rap, I cannot break dance, nor can I make beats or DJ. However, my strengths of being a good artist have been flaunted through my involvement in the organization and I have made posters and various logos for events that Hip Hop Congress had. By finding the right spot, I was able to exemplify my talents and let them be known amongst my peers.



A flier for Hip Hop Shop I made







A flier for That's My B!+@# I made



Overall, the strengths and weaknesses I have had through "the creative process" were the same ones as I started with. I am skilled in the arts, and I try to spread my skills through various mediums, rather than keeping all my eggs in one basket. I found the creative process to be an enjoyable process, but I had not obtained any new strengths or weaknesses from the class.