Many of us think that the things we think are disadvantages are actually advantages and vice versa. Gladwell starts his book redefining the David and Goliath story to show us that perhaps it was really David who had the advantage. He was smaller, more nimble and had one hell of an arm. Whereas Goliath was slow, had bad eyesight and was weighted down with armor. When you start to look at it like that, instead of “small child, giant man,” you start to see what Gladwell was getting at. But David’s biggest advantage wasn’t just strength of heart—it was knowing his strengths and using them to his advantage. He knew he couldn’t fight the same fight Goliath was capable of fighting—hand-to-hand—so he didn’t. He fought the best way he knew how, and it worked.

Watch Malcolm Gladwell tell the story his way here—he does a really bang-up job.

Back? Cool. The point is, like David, we don’t always have to go with the status quo. We don’t always have to go about things in a conventional manner.

In fact, I challenge each of you today to take something that you might consider a personal disadvantage and reinvent it into an advantage. And then tell me what happens next…

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant.

The Advantages of Disadvantages

We all know the David and Goliath Bible school story: Little guy wins out big over presumed-to-win giant. Yada yada yada—upset and unforeseen victories ensue. In Malcom Gladwell’s book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, Gladwell turns the idea that sometimes the smaller guy wins or the underdog comes out on top by flipping what we presume to be disadvantages to actual ADVANTAGES.

Condensed

Asking questions is the simplest and most effective way of learning.  Yet somehow we have forgotten this lesson as we get older. We just don’t value questioning as much as we should.  

Not asking good or even enough questions has a direct impact on the quality of choices we make. Mastering the art of asking questions enables us to gain deep insight, develop more innovative solutions and to arrive at better decision-making.

Recently, I’ve been reading Warren Berger’s fascinating book, “A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas”. The book’s basic premise is that we simply don’t ask enough questions these days. Like the little girl, Willow, in the op-doc, we were full of questions, but as we mature many of us lose this vital skill. “A More Beautiful Question” is a helpful guide to developing a more question-based approach to life, society, and business. It explores a flow of questioning from “Why?” to “What if?” to “How?”. This approach then expands horizons by provoking awareness of needs, shining a light on new opportunities and helping ideas become realities.

When we work with clients, we work to help their organization embody a purpose beyond profits. To reach this point we have to ask the hard questions, ones that press on the motives, orientations, and attitudes of their company. We do this to uncover the revealing and powerful answers that are rooted in meaning and emotion. This leads to building a brand that navigates the world in a more purposeful way, asking the questions that need to be asked of itself, and discovering the meaningful connections that help them prosper.

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 

“Can girls be robots?” 

“Why don’t worms have faces?”

How Does Life Live?

“Do blue butterflies eat pieces of the sky?” 