In a previous post, I broached the concept of: What you are afraid of is afraid of you, (Read it here if you missed it). In this post, I go deeper into this concept and then I give practical and useful tips in part 3.

Don’t we all like the story of the underdog? Or better still, isn’t it always better to root for the Underdog? Remember how Jeremy Lin, an un-drafted Basketball player of Taiwanese descent, took the NBA world by storm? We love stories like these, don’t we?, or at least I do. We love it because we can relate to it, and it somehow allows us the euphoria of conquering our own giants. Through the underdog winning, we win. We channel their success into our own lives.  But have you stopped to think about what it is that makes you an underdog to begin with? Perhaps it is that your opponent has perceived strengths that you cannot overcome. Well, I’m here to tell you today, that your opponents perceived strength can be his most exposed vulnerability. His advantage, many times is his weakness. Permit me to elaborate using the biggest underdog story of all time, the Biblical David vs Goliath.

Goliath’s strength laid in the fact that he was a giant, that he was tall, huge, and well built. His strength was that he had war time experience and he was fortified with armor and shields. But as it turns out, these strengths actually were his weaknesses. They were his weaknesses in that his armor and shields made him less flexible and less agile. His experience limited him to a single style of man to man combat, of infantry dueling. He didn’t know much about the emerging agile combating style of a seasoned archer. Goliath was a giant, which meant his center of gravity was a disadvantage to him and that getting up after a fall was going to be very difficult.

The Israeli army only saw Goliath’s strengths. They heard him boast from sun rise to sun set and trembled at his voice. But they failed to see his weaknesses. Enter the underdog, David, who instead of seeing the intimidating strengths of Goliath, chose to see the weaknesses aforementioned. David then took action to exploit these weaknesses. He shunned the conventional way of battling when he refused Saul’s armor.  He hinted to his emerging combat approach when he said:

Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied .- 1 Samuel 17:45

I can’t wait to share with you in part 3 of this series, how David specifically exploited each of Goliath’s weaknesses to win, and how you too, can exploit your Giant’s weakness to score a BIG win.