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you
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when I was 12 years old I fell off my
bike and I broke my left arm completely
in half the lower part of my forearm
came up at a 90 degree angle to the rest
of my forearm they didn't want to do
surgery because I was so young so they
put me in traction at the hospital they
set the bones as best they could and
they put me in a cast up to my shoulder
for three months after three months they
took the cast off and they told me I'd
be fine and I thought I was fine until
eight years later when I was 20 years
old and I was in college and my friend
Carl was playing the guitar as the Carl
showed me how to play the guitar and he
tried and he failed and he thought I was
an idiot and I thought I was an idiot
and then we realized they put me back
together wrong at the hospital when I
was 12 you should be able to do this
it's called supination when your palm is
flat to the ceiling pronation when your
palm is flat to the floor to play the
guitar you have to turn your hand inside
out and I can't turn my left hand over
and it was in that moment that I
realized why I had struggled at the
drive-thru for so many years
I thought all of us were struggling at
the drive-thru but it turns out that it
was just me because I can give them the
money just fine but I can't get the
change like sir you need to turn your
hand over I'm like okay I said what you
have to reach it out and like it was
reaching it out my sister-in-law had a
great idea she said I need a basket on a
stick and just put it in there if you
could just so it would seem like I have
a weakness I have a problem I have a
disability I need to fix it but then
something interesting happened I went to
Australian in Australia they drive on
the left-hand side of the road so they
drive on the right-hand side of the car
does anybody know the first place that I
drove when I drove in Australia for the
first time I went to the drive-thru you
bet I did because I wanted to know what
it felt like to reach my right arm out
the window oh so good
and here's what's important about that
story I'm disabled I'm damaged my left
arm doesn't work I function terribly in
the American drive-thru and yet I
functioned perfectly in the Australian
drive-thru not because I've changed Who
I am but because I've changed where I am
I haven't changed the person I've
changed the place you see situations are
powerful in situations can
to spotlight on the best things about us
or they can put the spotlight on the
worst things about us what's interesting
is we get to decide what situations we
put ourselves in so what I learned in
the Australian drive-through is that in
the right situation our weaknesses
become strengths I started learning this
or I wish I would have learned this at a
much younger age I was always in trouble
at school because of three things I
couldn't sit still be quiet or do what I
was told teachers didn't like me very
much they called me obnoxious rebellious
inappropriate immature told me uh no
self-discipline and no self-control if I
couldn't fix those things I was never
going to be successful my parents
believed the same thing they called me
motormouth in an effort to remind me
that my constant problem was that I
couldn't be quiet
but then something interesting happened
again I tried to fix those things for my
whole childhood and into early adulthood
but then I started noticing little signs
that people liked it when I stood up
they liked it when I talked they liked
it when I did my own thing and maybe
even rebelled a little bit and as an
adult I became a college professor and
it was my job to stand up and talk not
to sit still and be quiet I became an
entrepreneur and it was my job to make
decisions and to run my own business not
to do what other people tell me to do
when I learned that in the right
situation our weaknesses become
strengths a few years ago I did my first
Ironman Triathlon it's a 2.4 mile swim
that's 3.8 kilometers it's a 112 mile
bike 180 kilometers it's a 26.2 mile run
42 kilometers and I did the first one in
16 hours and 30 minutes that's not
impressive there's an 83 year old
Catholic nun named sister Madonna booter
who did it in 16 hours and 35 minutes
now she knows she lost to me she knows
she needs to get better she's training
for it but I'm not that I wasn't that
amazing but when I finished people sent
me Facebook message they sent me text
messages they sent me voicemail messages
praising me and rewarding me for being
very very very active which is
interesting because when I was a kid I
was also very very very active what do
we call kids that are very very very
active
I call him hyperactive we then
pathologized it as attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder then we give them
medicine that supposedly fixes them and
makes them better my whole life I got
criticized and punished because I
couldn't sit still be quiet and do what
I was told and then I found Ironman
triathlons and I got praised and
rewarded for the very same thing when I
was very very very active in one context
I seem to have a tremendous weakness
when I was very very very active in a
different context it seemed like a
tremendous strength in the right
situation our weaknesses become
strengths but this isn't just my story I
started wondering is this true for other
people and I discovered Matthias Schlitt
he was born with a genetic abnormality
called KT s and when you're born with KT
s one of your four limbs will be
gigantic in comparison to the others for
him it's his right arm his right arm is
three times the size of his left arm and
it always will be there's no treatment
there's no cure but Matthias litt found
the perfect situation for a person who
has a gigantic our right arm he became
an arm wrestler and found tremendous
success in fact he's feared by every
other human being who does arm wrestling
because he has all of the muscle where
it matters and none of it where it
doesn't and you arm wrestled by weight
class
Matthias litt didn't change who he was
he changed where he was he didn't change
the person he changed the place he found
the perfect situation that transformed
his obvious and glaring weakness into a
tremendous strength in the right
situation our weakness has become
strengths Matt Stutzman didn't have a
deformed arm he had no arms he was born
with no arms and he took up archery
that's not as obvious as armwrestling
for Matthias litt he didn't just become
better than people with arms he became
better than everyone in the world he
owns the world record for the longest
most accurate shot in archery in
recorded history I talked to him
personally after an event and I asked
him why it's so advantageous to not have
arms and he said because I get too
use my leg and my leg is bigger and
stronger than anybody's arm could
possibly be and that gives me more
strength which gives me more endurance
which gives me more stability which
gives me more accuracy I'm better
because I don't have arms in this
particular situation when Matt Stutzman
is anywhere else people see him as a
person without arms when he's doing
archery people see him as a world
champion because in the right situation
our weaknesses become strengths
sometimes we need to help other people
to find those situations we don't need
to find them for ourselves we need to
find them for other historic Hills son
has a son with autism he noticed that
two of the symptoms were hyper focus and
doing the same thing over and over again
thorkild Shawne worked in the software
industry and noticed that great software
testers had hyper focus and had to do
the same thing over and over again he
built a company called specialist stern
in Denmark and they hire only people
with autism to do software testing
because it's the perfect fit they take
someone who has a disability and they
turn it into a competitive advantage
they don't change the person they change
the place they don't change who the
person with autism is they change where
the person with autism is and they've
been so successful that the global
software giant s aap is currently
looking for hundreds of people with
autism from all over the world to do
software testing for them because
they've learned that in the right
situation our weaknesses become
strengths now some of you're like Dave I
don't have a gigantic right arm I'm
unfortunately I was born with arms
instead of being armless I feel like I'm
at a disadvantage here how could my
weaknesses possibly be strength so let's
go with some more basic sorts of things
that can happen to people so let's play
a little game I'm gonna give you a
weakness and you think of where maybe
that person might fit so if you're too
critical what's a job for someone who's
too critical editor I love it right be a
critic right that's a great one though I
edit ER your job is to fix those things
be a critic be a movie critic be a music
critic be a food critic your job is to
be critical when you find the right
situation that weakness becomes a
strength let's try again to controlling
some of your like spouse or partner
that's not a job but I see where you're
coming from right there's actually a job
called controller right
there's air traffic controllers your job
isn't to be a social worker for the
pilots it's to tell them what to do it's
to be in charge not to be open to their
ideas and let's do one more - analytical
right what's the job it's obvious it's
to be an analyst right and here's what's
interesting when you're told your whole
life you're too analytical and then you
get a job as an analyst what are people
probably gonna ask for more of from you
they're gonna ask you to be even more
analytical and that's when you know
you've found the right spot when people
are asking for more of the thing that
everyone else has told you you need less
of that's when you know you've found the
right fit in the right situation our
weaknesses become strengths we all
believe in self-improvement but maybe
self-improvement isn't about changing
ourselves maybe it's about changing the
situation we all believe in personal
development but maybe personal
development isn't changing the person
it's changing the place because in the
right situation our weaknesses become
strengths thank you very much
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you
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