The giant gourd

Huizi told Zhuangzi about a gourd seed the king of Wei had given him. He'd planted it and grown a gourd so big it held five bushels.

He tried to use it for water and it was too heavy to lift. He cut it in half for a ladle and it collapsed under its own weight. It was enormous and it was useless, so he smashed it.

Zhuangzi said: you're hopeless at using big things. A man in Song made a salve that stopped his hands cracking in winter. His family used it to wash silk. A stranger heard about it and offered a hundred pieces of gold. The family took it happily. The stranger took the salve to the king of Wu, and it made his navy fit for winter warfare, and he was given a fief.

Same salve. One family used it to wash silk. One man used it to win a war.

Then the punch line. You had a five-bushel gourd. Why didn't you strap it on as a float and drift on the rivers, instead of worrying that it couldn't hold water upright?

It's a good question for a Tuesday. The thing you've decided is your weakness might be a whole different object, waiting for a different purpose.

MOJOWAY doesn't sort people into fixed strengths. It looks for the frame something is sitting in, because that's usually where growth has been blocked.