Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.
Malcolm Gladwell,
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Gladwell’s David and Goliath presents powerful examples of the ways the underdogs of the world can change the way you think about being an underdog and unexpected leadership.
Break the rules.
When underdogs acknowledge their weakness and choose an unconventional strategy, they can subvert expectations and come out as the winner. When underdogs choose not to play by the rules, they can win, even when everything we think we know about power says that they shouldn’t.
Consider who has created the “rules.”
Rules are most often created by the majority who operate within a certain set of parameters. Those parameters may not work for all and may not acknowledge the conditions that others face.
How you “punish” is as important, if not more important, than the act of “punishing” itself.
“First of all, people who are asked to obey authority have to feel like they have a voice- that if they speak up, they will be heard. Second, the law has to be predictable. There is to be a reasonable expectation that the rules tomorrow are going to be roughly the same as the rules today. And third, the authority has to be fair. It can’t treat one group differently from another.”
Start as a Big Fish in a Small Pond.
Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? It turns out that you might be more successful as a big fish in a small pond because you may have more confidence. Those who choose to be a small fish in a big pond may they may appear to be a failure until you compare them to similar fish across all ponds.
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