Do you want to know the number one strength of being a man? The real value, the real honesty of being a man?

Being a man is not about how strong you are, how big your muscles are, how smart you are, how much money you make, or how well you navigate in the world.

The strength of being a man is knowing your limitations, knowing who is better than you and letting more adept people do the things which you cannot.

The other night I went out with somebody and we were talking.

I looked at her and said, “If you and I are ever together as a couple, I’ve got no problem if we have to buy Ikea furniture and you put it together.” She had told me she was great at putting it together.

I said, “Because you can leave me in charge of the Ikea furniture, but I know my limitations. I am not going to enjoy those six hours trying to figure out which screw goes where.”

I’ve learned those lessons.

Learn the Lessons and Know Your Limitations

Once, when I was 25 or 26, I “put together” a barbecue grill.

There were missing pieces all over the place.

But the grill was standing there and my steak was marinating downstairs and I just wanted to cook it and get it done. So I went downstairs and got the steak and I told the girl that I was with at the time that there were some extra pieces. She looked at me and said, “There’s no such thing as an extra piece.”

I said, “There is here.”

I went upstairs with the steaks, put them on the grill, and tried to light it, but it wouldn’t light. The thing was not clicking the way it was supposed to click.

What did I do? The gas was coming, so I threw the match on top of it; I figured it would light and sure enough it did. It went shooting up around the steak, around my head and singed my eyebrows. I went downstairs and she looked at me and started laughing. I was fine, I just smelled like smoke.

I said, “Maybe you’re right. There shouldn’t be any extra pieces.”

To me, life is always about extra pieces. In every business venture I’ve ever had, in everything I’ve ever done, I’ve always known my limitations.

real strengthI was, and still am, able to find people who are better than me who can get things done that I can’t get done so I can excel at the things that I excel at. Being a real man means being a man who understands that.

There’s Strength in Recognizing Your Weaknesses

When you’re able to excel at the things you excel at, your business is going to run a lot smoother and so is your life. You don’t have to spend eight hours putting together a gas grill or dealing with the Ikea furniture when you could be out creating magic with your strengths.

Your weaknesses are fine. Embrace them. Embrace your limitations.

Know that there’s always somebody that you can hire, somebody that does something better than you.

The other night in New York, I went out with my friend Brian who just put together a band.

He’s highly talented and one of my best friends in the entire world.

He knew he could have actually played the music himself on his album, but he knew that’s his limitation. His skill is creating the songs, writing them and singing them. So he found the best musicians to play on his album. That’s being a real man.

A real man is a successful man. He’s well aware of his limitations and he’s okay with them.

It’s not an egotistical thing at all. As a matter of fact, the most successful people I’ve ever met will always hire people better than them in the things that they can’t do. Because in the end, a man who knows his limitations is a man who is successful in life.

A successful man who owns a business hires people better than him to run the business. When people meet him and say, “Oh my god, that’s your business,” he says yes and those people look at him and put him on this pedestal. But, in reality, he’s no smarter than anybody else. He’s no smarter than you, no smarter than I. He just understood what his limitations were and found people to do those jobs that he could not do.

So write down your strengths and your weaknesses, know your limitations. Then find people to do those things for you, and let your life explode.