Rendall's Avoidance Of Weaknesses

In chapter 7, Avoidance, Rendall, wants the reader to understand the importance of their weaknesses to discern and bring out the best their strengths. Rendall begins the chapter with an anecdote about the case of a peanut allergy on a plane and how the airline did not want any passengers on the plane to have peanuts with them. This anecdote introduces and illustrates the purpose of the chapter, in which the author is comparing our weaknesses to be like allergies and advises us to avoid our weaknesses at all costs. “I think we are allergic to our weaknesses”(Rendall, 191). He states several similarities that compare the relationship between allergies and our weaknesses. Rendall describes that our weaknesses are not chosen by us- they are natural, and that we can’t get rid of them- even with medications to reduce symptoms. This depicts that no matter how much we abhor our weaknesses and try to get rid of them, we will never be able to completely get rid of them- just like we can’t get rid of our allergies completely no …show more content…
He does this to argue that to be the best in something we have to be willing to be the worst in others. He argues this by giving examples of sports players such as Shaquille O’Neal, one of the greatest NBA players of all time. O’Neal has large hands which are considered to be a weakness to him when it comes to free throws, but at the same time a strength as he is able to dominate and intimidate other players on defense with his physical size. What made O’Neal the best at what he did also made him the worst. Similarly, Rendall argues “if we want to be the best in one area, we need to allow ourselves to be the worst in another” (Rendall, 196). Allowing ourselves to be the worst in an area means that we should avoid those activities so we can work on our strengths to reach our full potential and become the best in