There are times in our lives when we have to do battle against giants. Such battles come in different shapes.
Have you had to cope with a misfortune that hampered your ability to compete with your contemporaries? Do you work for an organisation that is challenging the established institutions in the market? Are you in such a situation where you feel you are an outsider?
If so, you will, like me, be interested in strategies for clawing your way out of a disadvantageous position. My eyes lit up when I came across a book that claimed to be about underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants. I had to read it.
The book, David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, is about what happens when ordinary people confront giants. By giants, he means powerful opponents of all kinds – such as fighting the establishment, coping with a disability or overcoming misfortune. He examined the experience of select people each of whom faced a titanic challenge, and his conclusions were most encouraging and inspiring.
In his view, we constantly misread lopsided conflicts and we have a rigid and limited conception of what we think an advantage is. We often fail to appreciate that the powerful and the strong are not always what they appear to be. The same qualities that give the giant strength are often the sources of great weakness, and therein lies the opportunity to compete.
He starts off by analysing the Biblical story of the battle between David and Goliath. A battle between the Philistines and the Isrealites was to be settled by a duel between a warrior on each side. The Philistines sent forth Goliath – at least 9.6ft tall. He wore a bronze helmet and full body armour, carrying a javelin, a spear and a sword. When the Israelites saw the warrior they had to face, they were frightened and no one came forward. Then a shepherd boy visiting in the area stepped forward and volunteered. King Saul of Israel objected, as the shepherd was a mere boy with no experience in warfare. The shepherd insisted. King Saul relented.
David refused an offer of a sword or body amour; instead he picked up five stones and put them in his shoulder bag and approached Goliath. Goliath felt insulted that the Israelites could have sent forth so unworthy a warrior.
What happened next is a matter of legend. David put one of the stones in the leather pouch of a sling, ran towards Goliath whipping his sling faster and faster in circles and then released it at Goliath’s exposed forehead. Goliath fell down, stunned and David ran towards him, seized his sword and killed him.
The result was seen as a miracle – a battle won miraculously by an underdog who, by all expectations, should not have won at all. Was David’s victory that improbable? Not in Gladwell’s view. He believes that the account of the event misinterprets the battle and ignores the factors that gave David a good chance of defeating Goliath.
Goliath was a heavy infantry warrior and he came prepared to engage in a duel with another heavy infantry soldier. The Israelites did not give David a chance because they assumed he was going to fight Goliath in a hand to hand fight.
David, however, had no intention of engaging in person to person combat. His intention was to fight Goliath the same way he had learned to fight wild animals – using a sling. In experienced hands, the sling was a devastating weapon and had the same impact as a modern fair-sized gun.
He ran towards Goliath because without body armour he had speed and manoeuvrability. He aimed the sling at Goliath’s forehead – the giant’s only point of vulnerability. Goliath was carrying over 100 pounds of amour to protect him against body blows. But the fight turned out to be with a slinger, with no hand to hand fighting. In that fight, David had the upper hand.
David’s greatness consisted not in his being willing to go into battle against someone far stronger than he was. It was in his knowing how to exploit a skill and weapon he had and by which a feeble person could seize the advantage and become stronger.
We think about power in terms of physical might. We fail to appreciate that power can come in other forms as well – in changing the rules of the game, in substituting speed and surprise for strength. In Gladwell’s view, we continue to make the error today. The powerful and strong are not always what they seem. Underdogs win because they do not fight the way the bigger side wants to fight.
If you are an underdog, what is it about you that can give you a winning edge? What does it take to be like David – that person who does not accept the conventional order of things? Therein lies your opportunity.
• Uwaifo is Partner, Radix Legal & consulting Ltd, London.
www.radixlc.com