How to Turn Blind Spots From Your Enemy Into Your Most Important Asset Everyone has blind spots — but ignoring them won't make them disappear. Instead, try identifying them and learning to work with them.

The internet is filled with articles warning us about the perils of blind spots. How to overcome them, conquer them, avoid them; or more forebodingly, how they can lead to your company's downfall.

While it's true that ignoring them can cause problems, blind spots are not inherently bad. Anatomically, a blind spot is a place in your retina that connects to your optic nerve, a sort of ocular no-man's land devoid of light-sensitive cells.

What's interesting about this isn't the blind spot itself, but the way our minds compensate for them. The right eye has a different blind spot than the left eye, and each supplies its own information to the brain, which fills in whatever's missing with what it thinks should be there. This sort of patch job is why we don't have noticeable holes in our vision. But that information also isn't 100% accurate.

The fact is, we all have blind spots. Rather than approaching them with frustration, I prefer to approach mine with curiosity. What is missing from my field of view, and how can I fact-check what my brain is telling me?

Here, I share some steps on how you can transform your blind spots from fearful unknowns to assets you can embrace.

Related: How to Find Your Blind Spots When You Don't Know What You're Looking For

Drop your defensiveness

Back in 1955, psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham created the Johari window, a quadrant containing four sections: The Open Area (things you know about yourself), the Blind Area (things you don't know about yourself, but others do), the Hidden Area (things you know about yourself, but keep hidden), and the Unknown Area (things that are unknown to you and to others). Our blind spots, of course, reside in the Blind Area, and it's easy to see why ignoring this quadrant is a problem.

Ironically, people who are most resistant to their blind spots are the ones for whom they're most likely an issue. One study found that 62% of the lowest performers on a knowledge test believed they knew as much or more than experts.

According to business theorist Chris Argyris, some of this can be explained by "defensive reasoning." Even though most people will say they want to grow and improve — to identify their blind spots — the reality is, they don't. Reasoning is defensive when it's designed to keep inferences intact rather than pursue genuine growth.

"The worst part is that the use of defensive reasoning prohibits questioning our reasoning. This leads to self-fueling processes that serve to maintain the status quo, inhibit genuine learning, and reinforce deception," Argyris said in an interview.

Shaking defensive reasoning can be incredibly hard, especially because it's not always conscious. But acknowledging that you don't know what you don't know is the first, important step.

Related: 5 Strategies to Ace the Difficult Conversations in Your Business

Identify your blind spots

Once you've come to terms with the existence of your blind spots, it's time to start identifying them.

Because blind spots are inherently unknown to you, the first thing to do is seek outside input. By this, I mean the perspective of someone inherently different from you, who is in a position to challenge your core beliefs.

A good example of this is Abraham Lincoln, who famously appointed a "team of rivals" to key Cabinet positions after he won the 1860 presidential election. Surrounding himself with sycophants would surely have made Lincoln's life easier. But Lincoln wasn't out for easy — if he were, he probably wouldn't have become one of the most revered names in American history.

Instead, he surrounded himself with no less than three men with whom he'd competed for the Republican presidential nomination, each of whom had differing political beliefs. While Lincoln was firm with his intention to emancipate the country's slaves, it was his former rivals who helped him shape the plan to execute it.

While it's helpful to seek out the opinions of those who think differently than you, you don't always have to look that far. One of the reasons I mentor other startup founders is that I often discover new ways of thinking. This is especially true around relatively recent developments, like the opportunities surrounding AI.

I've been building my own products at Jotform for almost two decades, and it's safe to say I have a lot of experience in the field. But newer founders often bring a fresh way of thinking that I may not otherwise have been exposed to. It can be a challenge — especially for longtime founders who have had success — to avoid getting stuck in their ways. One of the tricky things about identifying blind spots is that they're ever-changing. Maintaining a growth mindset is the key to staying on top of them.

Related: 'But Did You See the Gorilla?!' How to Make Your Blind Spots Work for You.

Use them to your advantage

So many people see their blind spots as potential pitfalls. Instead, try reframing them as opportunities for growth.

Once you've figured out what your blind spots are, get to know them. If you've found you're overconfident in your product or haven't done adequate market analysis, don't waste time trying to justify yourself or building defenses to the contrary. Accept these difficult realities, and get to work — this means seeking advice from people you admire, educating yourself and not being afraid of the initial discomfort that comes with addressing a pain point.

Everyone has blind spots, and ignoring them doesn't make them go away. Instead of being afraid of them, flip the script: Learn your blind spots, get to know them and work on them. By doing that, the blind spots that were once your enemy can actually become your most important assets.