How something broken can be a good thing

I saw a presentation about ‘kintsugi’. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise (wikipedia).

This made me think of French artist, Bruno Catalano, mostly renown for creating sculptures of figures with substantial sections missing. In 2004, Catalano noticed a flaw in one of his characters. This prompted him to dig and hollow out the chest. To his surprise, this frail character was the first to be sold at his stand. From then on, the rest became history. Famous galleries contacted him and ordered his sculptures. He now sells around the world.

What stands out is that he turned this mishap into an advantage. These hollow sculptures are now his ‘signature’.

So, what does it have to do with you?

These two examples just show that something broken does not necessarily mean something bad, and that you can turn things around…

We all have our ‘flaws’, nobody is perfect, and that is what makes us unique! That is what makes you YOU!

So, embrace your ‘flaws’! Use them and turn them to your advantage, because what you may see as a weakness can actually become your greatest strength!