In business, especially as a creator or entrepreneur, your biggest roadblock might not be lack of time, talent, or resources—it could be your ego. Many entrepreneurs delay learning new skills because they don’t want to face the discomfort of being bad at something. But, according to Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit, the fastest way to grow is to deliberately seek out and tackle your weaknesses.

Here’s how Barry suggests doing it, without letting pride slow you down.

Key Takeaways:

• Ask for specific, actionable feedback—not vague advice.
• Study yourself at work to identify inefficiencies.
• Track what top leaders in your industry are learning.
• Decide which skills are worth fixing and which you can delegate.
• Watch out for the “ego trap” that keeps you from starting.

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1. Get Specific Feedback from Others

Most feedback is useless because it’s too general. Instead of asking, “How can I improve?”—which often yields broad, unhelpful answers—Barry recommends asking pointed, measurable questions:

• “What’s one thing I could do better in my presentations?”
• “Where do you see me wasting the most time?”
• “What skill would 10x my content output?”

Sometimes, the feedback will reveal a bottleneck you didn’t know existed. For example, your team might tell you: “We always do four takes of everything. If you could nail it in one take, we’d create so much more content.” That’s a clear, specific skill you can work on.

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2. Study Yourself

Barry suggests recording yourself as you work and reviewing the footage like an athlete watching game film. This allows you to spot patterns and inefficiencies you’d otherwise miss:

• Where do you stumble?
• What takes longer than it should?
• What work do you procrastinate on?

This process, while uncomfortable, is the essence of deliberate practice—you can’t improve what you don’t measure.

3. Pay Attention to What Smart People Are Learning

Look at the leaders in your industry. What skills are they talking about right now? If a large percentage of successful creators are all learning the same thing, there’s probably a reason.

Barry cautions that not every weakness is worth fixing. Some gaps—like being disorganized—might be better solved by hiring help. But if a skill directly affects your business’s core output, like video editing for a video-driven brand, it’s worth the effort.

The Ego Trap

The biggest barrier to learning isn’t usually time—it’s pride. Your ego wants to shield you from the discomfort of incompetence. But often, the weaknesses you avoid are the exact ones holding your business back.

Everyone else can see them. You just have to be willing to admit them.

Barry challenges entrepreneurs to ask themselves: “Is this skill truly unimportant, or am I just avoiding it because I don’t want to be bad at it?”

The 14-Day Experiment

You don’t have to commit forever. Instead, Barry suggests picking one skill and running a 14-day learning sprint. Track your progress. See what changes in your business.

Growth comes from deliberate action, not passive wishing.

So—what skill are you going to learn next?