The guy waited patiently until a bus stopped right in front of him and a cross-eyed conductor popped out, shouting, "Cubao, Cubao! Cubao diyan!" When the conductor asked, "Bayad mo?" the guy confidently gave his one peso coin and said, "O ‘yan a! Dalawang piso ‘yan!" The cross-eyed conductor looked at him suspiciously and said "Boss, niloloko ni’yo yata ako eh. Kulang ito eh," said the conductor. "Ha!? Anong kulang?!" the guy shouted. "Ikaw, bayad na," said the conductor, "– eh, paano ‘yung kakambal mo?"
This joke reminds me of a very important lesson: Our weakest spot could actually be our greatest strength.
In the joke, the conductor’s supposed "weakness" (his double vision) negated the guy’s attempt to fool him with half the fare, and that was his "strength."
Most of us go through life knowing that we have at least one weakness, and that’s not a bad thing. Even Brad Pitt has a weak spot. I bet he has bad breath, BO, a bad case of athlete’s foot – or something. A guy can’t be that handsome, that rich, have a multi-millionaire wife, have a gazillion fans, have a great career, and not have a single weak spot. It’s just humanly impossible.
One guy I know said confidently one time, "I know my weakness. I am too handsome and I’m ashamed of it. " I told him, "You do have a weakness alright – you actually have two – your poor eyesight and your horrible taste."
Seriously though, weak spots are nothing to be ashamed of. Superman has one: kryptonite. Well, there’s another, if you count Lois Lane.
Most people, in fact, have multiple weak spots. For some people, their weak spots even outnumber their strengths.
In the office, there are different departments. You see the finance department, the marketing department, the client service department, the sales department, etc. Now all of these departments represent, to a certain extent, the strength of each person in each department. Each person in each department is there precisely because of his or her strength in the line or function of that department. But conversely, you can say that each person in a specific department is not in the other departments because perhaps they are weak in those other departments.
In my office for example, there are some guys in the marketing group who I can never imagine doing finance work. And there are some guys in the finance group who I know can never be in sales. It’s just not in their personality. For some people, selling is so easy it has become an art. They can literally bullsh…er…I mean, talk their way into closing a deal, but they couldn’t balance a budget even if their life depended on it.
That’s a fact of life. You have strengths and you have weaknesses.
Take that cute guy in the finance group, for example. You girls might think he’s Mr. Perfect and all, but once you talk to him, you’ll realize why he’s called a "bean-counter." If you ask for his number, he’ll probably say, "Would you like the gross revenues, the operating profit or the EBITDA?" Guwapo nga, talks like a dork naman. My apologies to all the finance wizards out there. It’s just an example, OK?
Since I’m a lawyer, I will use lawyers as an example. Let’s say you check out your legal department, and see another Mr. Hunk, a deadringer for the guy in The Practice. Sure, he may have topped the bar and sure, he has won all his cases, and sure, he’s drop-dead gorgeous, but don’t be surprised if his pickup line is something like this: "Hey there, Partner, what do you say we hop on my wheels of Justice, go to a Bar, then enjoy some acts of lasciviousness on my Bench, then we could move on to my Sala and consummate our crimes of passion and obfuscation?"
Believe me, lawyers may have a way with words but when it comes to words of romance, we kinda suck. And for most of us lawyers, that’s our weakness. We’re prone to using legalese and our sentences are always too wordy. And when we talk about "appeal" and "briefs" we’re not trying to be sexy – we’re referring to a 60-page position paper that will be filed in court. Now that, my friends, is a weak spot if I ever saw one!
Hey, we shouldn’t fret. In fact, we can make use of our weak spot as a source of strength. Look at Christopher Reeve. He was the stud during his time, and now, he is a quadriplegic.
But despite his condition, look at what he’s achieved in terms of creating awareness for spinal cord injury patients and the money he has raised for his foundation to help fund research. He has achieved more now than what he did during his Superman days. He even acts and directs movies – all this while living with a respirator. Wow!
Look at Michael J. Fox. He’s become a spokesperson for Parkinson’s Disease and he is helping thousands of its victims to cope by giving out inspirational talks and raising funds.
On the local front, a good friend of mine, Gerry Gonzalo, a top model, lost his eyesight due to a car accident more than 10 years ago. Recently, I saw him and guess what? He is training for the upcoming Paralympics! His "weakness" has made him a stronger person and you know what? He just might win an Olympic medal. And that’s something most of us normal sighted people will never achieve in our lifetime.
One time, during my early years as a newscaster, I asked my co-anchor, veteran newscaster Cathy Santillan if she still got nervous before every newscast. She said, "Yes, but because of my nervousness, I always try my best." Cathy is a classic case of someone using a weakness (nervousness) to develop a strength.
The best example I could give about "leveraging your weakness and using it as a strength" is Boston Celtic legend Larry Bird. Bird had a clear weakness. He was a basketball player but he was white. And we all know white men can’t jump. Bird was slow and not very agile. But because of these deficiencies, he had to find a way to make up, so he used his brain. In his prime, he outsmarted a lot of players who were more physically gifted than he was. But I’ll bet if he didn’t have those physical shortcomings, he probably wouldn’t have been so smart.
So what’s you weakness? Go ahead, examine yourself. And when you do find it, give yourself a pat on the back. Because you know what? You may have just found yourself. And believe me – that’s a lifetime achievement in itself.