How a Weakness Can Become Your Superpower
I have a superpower.
Well, kind of. It’s not x-ray vision. But it does help me see things others can’t see.
It came from an unexpected source… something I initially thought was my greatest weakness and a painful part of my younger years.
In first grade I was put into special education programs for kids who were “behind the curve.” As a result, my self-image at the time was, “I’m not smart. I’m much slower than everyone else. That’s just what I am.”
I had plenty of evidence for this.
One day we had two tests in class. Ted Jones sat on one side of me and Courtney Henderson sat on the other side.
The first was a math test. There were five columns of problems, and we were expected to know the answers off the top of our heads. What’s 10 x 7? 12 ÷ 3?
Five columns. 100 answers required... and we were timed.
I noticed Ted and Courtney were done with all five columns as I was finishing up the first… and when I started the second column, the teacher would call time.
Then there was the reading test. We had to read through three pages of political writing from George Washington or somebody, and then answer questions.
I’d be on the third sentence when Courtney and Ted turned to Page 2, and they’d be answering the questions while I was still reading the third paragraph.
I was lucky if I got C and D grades.
I realized something really was wrong with me.
Actually, the situation wasn’t entirely fair… in that, Ted and Courtney turned out to be something like co-Valedictorians our senior year of high school . (I also overcame my deep resentment towards them for making me feel dumb… after years of therapy, Ted and Courtney, if you read this, I forgive you (mostly)).
But I was still right. There was something wrong with me.
In the third grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia.
Numbers got jumbled up in my head and it was a challenge to understand the flow of written words. Hardly a superpower, right?
At the time, this felt profoundly limiting… because school was mostly about reading words and getting numbers in the right order.
Now, why am I telling you all this? I have three good reasons:
Pity points. If I collect enough, I think I can redeem them at Dutch Brothers, a local coffee shop.
So that you hire me as a leadership coach. Since I can’t read or count, I’m not qualified to be your accountant or attorney.
In my experience, I’ve often found that seeming weaknesses and disadvantages can actually be a strength in disguise.
They can be a springboard for something much bigger, because they give you a perspective others don’t have.
Being dyslexic, I developed other strengths I didn’t realize I had until much later in life… like my “x-ray vision,” which can help me see things others can’t. I’ll tell you about it in the next blog post.
