A SWOT analysis is a tool that is often used in business. We could use it to analyse a business, a department, a team, a product, and also ourselves. We should draw a matrix, where the titles of the two columns point to both positive factors and negative factors, whereas the titles of the two raws point to internal factors and external factors as follows:

	Strong points	Weak points
Internal factors	STRENGTHS (punti forza)	WEAKNESSES (punti deboli)
External factors	OPPORTUNITIES (opportunità)	THREATS (minacce)

The distinction between internal factors and external factors is crucial as we must identify what is in our hands and we can actually work on (strengths and weaknesses) and what is not in our control (opportunities and threats), although we can still react promptly to anything that may happen to us, provided we are aware of that.

In the latter case we may not have any possibility to change the course of events. However, it is still an extremely valuable attitude if we stop to think about the world we are in, the social changes, the IT challenges, the global market issues, the legal and political implications for the economy. It is important to keep an eye on what is going on and ask ourselves: what does all this mean to me as a free-lancer, as an employee, as a worker, as a technician, as a manager, as an entrepreneur? What are the opportunities to take? What are the threats and how could I react to them? Do I have a fall-back scheme?

We can also reduce risks by working on our weak points and turning them into strengths. In this respect, we should list them all, try to plan actions in order to improve them, and we should set precise deadlines so as to check on our progress regularly.