Thank you, my remarkably foolish friends, for indulging me your attention in a second post about hockey in as many days.
What’s worse, this isn’t a charming post about youth sport.
Naw.
This is about Martin St. Louis, Hall of Fame hockey player and new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.
Mr. St. Louis is a grand total of five feet six inches tall. He is, by NHL standards, essentially six inches too short.
This many believed would prevent him from making his way into the NHL. He was never drafted.
He had the skills and the mind for the game. People never questioned his heart. They questioned his frame.
Those missing six inches were considered Marty’s biggest liability. They eventually became his greatest strength.
Marty is short.
Marty played low, closer to the ice. He had a low centre of gravity. It made him difficult to move. He could also, from that low centre of gravity, help momentarily liberate people from the bonds of gravity. He would go low. They would go high. Some who attempted to run him over would discover the joy of flight. Not by choice.
I love this story because Marty took the very thing that seemed like his greatest deficit and turned it into a great strength.
I also love the notion of having a low centre of gravity.
If you have a gravity centre, where is it? And if you have a gravity centre, do you have a levity centre, or a ‘centre of levity’? Where would that be in your body?
Also, back to the little big guy Martin St. Louis, being small was an advantage. He changed the game.
How could your biggest perceived weaknesses be a source of strength?
How could you use it to ‘change the game’?
It’s like the old saying goes:
The clouds from afar would be fluffy in a jar.
"And if you have a gravity centre, do you have a levity centre, or a ‘centre of levity’? " This thought could feed my mind for a long time. If reading this newsletter was panning for gold, I just struck it rich. Tastes like mental tiramisu.
I have a strategic mindset. I naturally think about options and evaluate them. I am wired to win and I have learned to use other people's perceptions to my advantage. Bias has caused us pain. Why not use it to your advantage? Being a young woman has definitely worked against me. My H A LASTNAME became Mr H A LASTNAME by the Financial Post when they would communicate with me regularly when I worked in finance. It was a formal apology-worthy error if you were wrong. I have kept one of those letters. It reminded me that I made it where people didn't expect me to go. Women weren't expected to be in my position. I knew that. I didn't know the belief was strong enough to be assumed to be true. If people assumed something false to be true, I had knowledge they didn't. That is a strategic strength. When I bought my first new car, I finally knew how to negotiate. I knew I would be underestimated. I also could not drive a standard. More assumed inability. Let's say it is a great story and they sold me the car for the price I initially asked for that they had laughed over. They saved the damsel. The less than capable woman assumption = damsel. I was going to ensure my assumed weakness, which harmed me often, would serve me as well. I am currently no longer describable as a damsel. Crone is creeping in fast since I let my hair go grey during COVID. I now have people, usually 20 year old women, chastise me for trying to pick up heavy items at the warehouse store. At first, I was offended. Why do you think I can't or shouldn't do that? Then I took a long look in the mirror.; heavy grey haired woman. My Italian heritage seeping out? Pop quiz: "What's more incapable then a damsel?" Answer: a fat crone. A whole new era has begun of being underestimated. As Muhammad Ali would say, "I pity the fool."