26. The Dragon Warrior

The Kung Fu Panda movie collection is one of my favorites. It is about a chubby, clumsy, and enthusiastic giant panda becoming the greatest martial artist in all of China. In the first movie the great master Oogway, a tortoise, picks an untrained and underqualified panda, Po, to be the Dragon Warrior dramatically and unexpectedly. At the heart of the story is the idea that greatness is born out of passion and hard work but also your uniqueness. Your peculiarities are your strengths and you can leverage them. When passion and hard work are channeled through your specialness a Dragon Warrior is made. At the end of the first movie when the villain, Tai Lung, steals the Dragon Scroll which is said to provide its reader with limitless power he opens it only to find it blank. Po, the true Dragon Warrior, realizes what it means when he sees his reflection in the gold-layered scroll. There is no secret ingredient. There is nothing mystical about being the Dragon Warrior. The Dragon Warrior is the one who embraces their unique strengths and interests and then goes all in on it, whereas those who round their sharp edges trying to fit in cannot be the Dragon Warrior. 

But there's something far deeper to learn from this story. As Eric Weinstein revealed, Oogway, a self-taught master, recognized Po’s ability to become a self-taught master. The A+ students who only did everything their teacher said did not have this ability. It did not matter how great they did everything. Po, free to do as he pleases, surpassed everyone including Oogway. Unable to copy his teacher he had to create new knowledge. He had to learn about himself and how he works. He had to realize that nothing stopped him from figuring out secret techniques especially if no one wanted to teach him. This is what made him the Dragon Warrior. Thus The Dragon Warrior is the one who understands that nothing can stop the passionate pursuit of knowledge creation. We can understand ourselves better. We can understand the world better. New knowledge awaits if we cheekily dare to try.