Monday, 4 August 2008

Weakness can be leveraged

"There was a boy who was born without a right arm. On his ninth birthday he asked his parents if he could join a karate club. They were delighted by the idea and the boy quickly became a regular at the local dojo. The boy wanted to compete in a tournament and asked his master if this was possible. The master said he could but only if he listened carefully to his master and trusted him.

The master taught the boy one move and one move only. The boy practised it diligently but after a while he was worried that the other boys were learning a range of moves and he only had one. He asked the master to teach him other moves but the master said no. The master just urged the boy to keep practising that one move.

The boy won the first round of the tournament and then the next round and the one after that until he found himself winning the entire tournament. The boy was baffled. How did he do it? He asked the master how a boy with only one arm and only one move could win a karate tournament against these other boys. The master smiled and told the boy that there is only one defence against the move the boy learned and that defence involves grabbing the attacker by the right arm."

I remember a film from my early days where a blind woman switches off the light in the house to ward off an intruder who is out to kill her. When lights are off both cannot see, but she being blind is in her comfort zone and has a territorial advantage over the intruder.

Know your limitations and leverage it to the maximum. A classic case of WT strategy in TOWS matrix?
as

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