I have been listening to the new book “David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and The Art of Battling Giants” by Malcolm Gladwell, the concept of underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants is very close to my heart. Our tribe ie. Entrepreneurs or a Startup founders are always battling numerous giants and one cannot but categorize our tribe as underdogs. Why do I say this? is there any other group that is constantly told all the time that what they are doing makes no sense or crazy, maybe not in their face but one senses it. I think this is again a very interesting book on strategy, every startup or an entrepreneur takes on a giant whether it is opening up a new market, launching a brand new product or disrupting an established incumbent. When one is going through that exercise, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking how the opponent is so strong and powerful and loaded with a lot of cash etc However, in the book the author focuses on what are the things that the underdogs had going for them. Here is a TED talk on one of the anecdotal stories about David and Goliath, the reason why Goliath was defeated is contrary to what we conventionally think. Actually David went into battle knowing that he had the upper hand. Following up on my post yesterday, if you are an entrepreneur or a startup figure out what your strategy is against the incumbent. Being an underdog and fighting a giant is an exhilarating exercise, I love it. I love to go against the grain and prove valuable things can be built against all odds. Go now and fight your giants, you have all the weapons you need in your arsenal.
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