Find Your Strength It may be where you least expect.

Nobody wants to admit they have weaknesses, and nobody wants toput any kind of limitations on themselves. As a result, limitationsand weaknesses are the last places most people would look forcompetitive advantage--so they may be the best places to create it.Late in his life, when medicine had advanced beyond what it was inhis younger years, Thomas Edison claimed that a hearing specialistapproached him and offered to help restore part or all of hishearing. He turned down the offer, however, and preferred to remaindeaf due to the great benefits he had received from his severehearing limitations. Edison had learned that limitations were anessential part of his creativity. It's a concept that stillapplies today.

Excerpted from At Work With Thomas Edison: 10 Business LessonsFrom America's Greatest Innovator