I recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, “David and Goliath.” If you aren’t familiar with Gladwell’s work, he has written four other books: the Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw. He also writes for the New Yorker.
“David and Goliath” is full of great stories and examples of how the concepts of strengths and weaknesses or advantages and disadvantages are often the opposite of what they seem. For example, we think of David and Goliath as the classic underdog story but the reality of the situation is that Goliath was slow and expecting to fit hand to hand giving David, an experienced sling shooter, every advantage in the fight (watch the TED Talk below to hear Malcolm tell the story). He goes on in the books to talk about how people with dyslexia often become great listeners and negotiators – not in spite of but because of their lack of reading ability: their weakness becomes in advantage.
Here is a great article discussing what business or marketing insights are to be gained from the book: Malcolm Gladwell’s New Book: 5 Critical Business Lessons. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it, along with all of his other books.