A friend of mine recently shared an article from the New Yorker with me. The article is titled, “How David Beats Goliath” and is a pre-cursor to Malcolm Gladwell’s next book. You guessed it – the book is about how underdog’s can succeed.
The article was very interesting to me – partially because the examples used to prove his point were sports or history related. I love both.
Bottom line – if you are the underdog and compete with “Goliath” on his terms, you will lose at least two-thirds of the time. Not a great winning percentage, but better than Mario Mendoza‘s batting average.
On the other hand, if you are the underdog and you find new, creative and innovative ways to compete, you can win much more often. Think about all the times you do things because that’s the way they’re always done. When you do, you don’t often “win”. But when you re-think things; try to find a new and better way to do them – you are more successful.
I look forward to reading Malcolm Gladwell’s book in 2013. I’m sure we’ll make more observations about competing as the underdog then. Until then, share some experiences you have had winning while competing as the underdog.
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