Genius or Idiot
By Conrad Ho, Hong Kong, March 12, 2017
Conrad Ho used to say to the parents of kids with so-called “learning difficulties” that their kids were, indeed, different. We had to acknowledge the fact. The important point or question is: how we were going to interpret and use it.
Assume that individual potential can be accurately quantified and measured. Plot the data of the whole human population on a graph with the X axis being the human potential while the Y axis is for the number of people. We should get a normal distribution line, with 90% of us clustered around the average potential and the “abnormal ones (geniuses and idiots)” at lower levels on both ends, each at 5%.
5-5Conrad believes the Creator is always fair. The total potential of each of us at a scale only the Creator knows is all the same, but the distribution is different. No matter how bad his shortcomings are, everybody is good at something. When the kid is “abnormal” (not in the average 90% range), it is of the utmost importance for the parents and teachers being the kid’s life coaches to see the kid’s gifts AND know how to encourage its expression, so that the kid will become one in the upper 5% range. If the kid’s life coaches only focus on identifying the problem and try to come up with a solution, they are attending to the shortcomings of the kid. This strategy, if successful, will probably send the kid into the average 90% range; if unsuccessful, into the lower 5% range.
In another angle to look at the situation, please think of it as an exercise of redistributing resources (e.g. time and money) to help the kid solve his problems or express his gifts. Which option will likely to have a higher return of “investment”? The kid will have a better chance to yield a bigger improvement under which investment strategy? Please remember. Shortcomings are what the kid is NOT good at while gifts are what he is. Which investor is probably cleverer, investing money into an entrepreneur to do a business that he is good at and another entrepreneur to do a business that he is lousy at?
Conrad think that life coaches of kids with “learning difficulties” need not aim at changing them anything, or from abnormal back into normal. We should learn from top coaches picking kids of potential to train for Olympic gold medals. They eye at what the kids are exceptional (i.e. abnormal) for and not problematic at.
The fact is the kid is abnormal but this abnormality can be a curse AND a blessing! In which human potential range the parents and teachers would like him to be? The top 5% in the genius category or the low 5% in the idiot category? How you are ready to help your kid interpret and use his difference? Your decision is to continue the search for solutions to their problems OR training programs to express their gifts?
