In the story of David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants, by Malcolm Gladwell talks about how David, an underdog, won over Goliath a hugely powerful man. In the case of David and Goliath, why do we continue seeing Goliath as winners? Despite the many stories we've heard of "Davids" winning over "Goliaths", we still view "Davids" as weak and improbable. This disregards the possibilities underdogs can achieve. As children and adults, we have always been taught that "Goliaths" can only be winners and underdogs such as David have no chance of winning and shouldn't even try because we automatically assume a failure. We see that in our present lives and history, what we assume to be powerful in many cases win. "Goliaths"
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We always quote, "Don't judge a book by its cover", yet we are fast to act upon it. What keeps us from seeing the truth about what makes Goliath weak is the fact that the weakness is unapparent, and would require some time to be noticeable. The opposite goes for underdogs where their supposed weakness is obvious. For example in Gladwell’s story of Ranadive’s, it was clear that the Girls Little League of Basketball team was an underdog contained of twelve years olds with little to no prior experience: "They weren’t all that tall. They couldn’t shoot. They weren’t particularly adept at dribbling .They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening ’’ (20).And they had to compete against a really good team “for whom basketball was a passion" (21).The girls were coached by a man named Vivek Ranadive who had never played basketball before. Ranadive knew that the girls had no chance of winning playing the game the traditional way, so he decided to institute a full court press because they don’t need to have a background in basketball to play tough defense. When the girls played against the other team they crushed them. Seasoned coaches were bewildered on why they were defeated by such a bad team. They would say to the refs,"That’s a foul! That's a foul!" but it was really "just playing aggressive defense" (32). Since the rules of the game had to be a taken into …show more content…
For example, when I was bullied, I wasn’t bullied because I was strong or aggressive I was bullied because I looked weak and shy. So, the girl that bullied me took that as an advantage. Unlike her, she was tall, mean and was the "cool kid" in class. So, when she decided to fight me, she had already presumed she would win. It never occurred to her that I would win against her with one kick after she had kicked me a couple of times on my legs. It also surprised me because I never thought I would defeat my bully in such a simple way. It gave me the confidence to stand up for myself against my enemies. It proves a point that not all "Goliaths" are
We always quote, "Don't judge a book by its cover", yet we are fast to act upon it. What keeps us from seeing the truth about what makes Goliath weak is the fact that the weakness is unapparent, and would require some time to be noticeable. The opposite goes for underdogs where their supposed weakness is obvious. For example in Gladwell’s story of Ranadive’s, it was clear that the Girls Little League of Basketball team was an underdog contained of twelve years olds with little to no prior experience: "They weren’t all that tall. They couldn’t shoot. They weren’t particularly adept at dribbling .They were not the sort who played pickup games at the playground every evening ’’ (20).And they had to compete against a really good team “for whom basketball was a passion" (21).The girls were coached by a man named Vivek Ranadive who had never played basketball before. Ranadive knew that the girls had no chance of winning playing the game the traditional way, so he decided to institute a full court press because they don’t need to have a background in basketball to play tough defense. When the girls played against the other team they crushed them. Seasoned coaches were bewildered on why they were defeated by such a bad team. They would say to the refs,"That’s a foul! That's a foul!" but it was really "just playing aggressive defense" (32). Since the rules of the game had to be a taken into …show more content…
For example, when I was bullied, I wasn’t bullied because I was strong or aggressive I was bullied because I looked weak and shy. So, the girl that bullied me took that as an advantage. Unlike her, she was tall, mean and was the "cool kid" in class. So, when she decided to fight me, she had already presumed she would win. It never occurred to her that I would win against her with one kick after she had kicked me a couple of times on my legs. It also surprised me because I never thought I would defeat my bully in such a simple way. It gave me the confidence to stand up for myself against my enemies. It proves a point that not all "Goliaths" are