AL’s [true] story

There were so many things that Al was either slow at or couldn’t seem to do at all.

Poor Al. Even as a young child people recognised him as being mentally slow. It took him so long to learn to talk that his parents consulted a doctor. His family labelled him ‘the dopey one’.

At school, Al didn’t fit in, neither with fellow students or teachers. To the other kids, he was a freak because he had zero interest in sports. One teacher told Al that he’d never amount to anything and that he should drop out of school immediately. As a result, Al hated school.

Al dreamed of being a teacher but suffered rejection after rejection. It took him 9 years before he eventually got his first teaching job. And if all this wasn’t enough, Al was also incredibly absent-minded:

1. He often lost stuff. If he went away he’d forget his clothes or even his entire suitcase
2. He once went for a walk and couldn’t remember the way home
3. He would sign letters with the person’s name he was sending them to, rather than his own name!

He never drove a car and his relationships often ended in failure.

But… all we’ve talked about is what Al couldn’t do. Fortunately, he didn’t focus on his weaknesses. His strength was creative thinking and rather than thinking in words, Al thought in pictures. He thought about things that nobody else did:

1. Al imagined what it would be like if he were to travel on a bullet at the speed of light
2. Or whether space might curve, making the distance between 2 points, not necessarily a straight line
3. Or whether time might be relative rather than absolute, so that if one twin went on a space trip at the speed of light, he’d come back a different age from the twin who’d been left behind

With his incredible imagination he helped prove the existence of atoms and dreamed up science’s most famous equation: e = mc²

Al was, of course, Albert Einstein, considered by many as the greatest genius who has ever lived. So, Einstein was like most of us – good at some things and really bad at others. Fortunately, he worked hard at developing his strengths and refused to let his weaknesses hold him back.

Discussion

1. 1. Imagine you were ‘young Einstein’ – would you have thought of yourself as smart or stupid? Why?
   2. What can we learn from Al’s story?
   3. What are your areas of strength?
   4. How can you craft a future in which you can spend more time playing to your strengths?