Why Goliath Had to Lose

  Imagine what would happen if you took a series of million-view TED talks and integrated them into a national bestseller nonfiction. The product? David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell, which I will simply refer to as David and Goliath. Although not necessarily capturing stories straight from famous TED talks, David and Goliath rings the readers’ minds with the same level of impact and excitement. This book teaches the readers why David was able to easily beat Goliath and how Monet, along with other artists initially criticized as amateur painters, could become successful. Despite the plain white cover, the book’s engaging content kept me turning its pages and gave me the hope that maybe I, too, can beat my Goliath. 

Through the course of the book, the author brings in many immersive and relatable examples from around the world where people overcame their disadvantages and used them as their motivation towards success. Rather than laying out these stories as rare instances of miracle, the author offers a deeper lesson conveyed in each story by analyzing the manner with which these stories were told (as he got many of these stories from interviews) and the thought processes of the people who overcame their challenges despite the “obvious” disadvantage. Each story shows how society always tries to categorize people as disadvantaged or advantaged and takes a one-sided view on who has the potential to succeed based on these factors. For example, Gary Cohn’s elementary school teacher put him under her desk and kicked him for being behind in class due to his dyslexia. The teacher would never have expected that Cohn would later graduate from high school and become a president at Goldman Sachs (124). However, from Gladwell’s seamless discussion of these anecdotes, we learn that the boundary between disadvantages and advantages is not as clearly defined as we are often prone to believe. 

The author asserts that the “disadvantages” lead people to work harder or brainstorm a much more clever plan than others, naturally training them to become more efficient to make up for their disadvantage. Further, the disadvantage allows one to focus on self-development and track one’s progress in comparison to their initial state rather than to others. Thereby, their growth feeds on the apparent obstacles until the obstacles turn into an advantage that sets the “handicapped” individuals apart from the more privileged ones. This philosophy of growth touches upon some of the major issues and events currently impacting us as high school students. In countries over the world, we commonly find people equating academic success to admission into prestigious universities. However, according to what the author defines as a big-fish–little-pond effect, being in a highly competitive environment, such as Harvard University, may demoralize the individual for being “less smart” than others around them. On the other hand, being in a smaller “pond”, like lower-ranked universities would make one feel more potent and push them to work harder. Here, being in a smaller university would give the individual the advantage of thriving in their field of interest while going to a larger, more dignified university may rid them of self-confidence and their interest in the subject. Now, let’s pretend that you were accepted into Brown University and the University of Maryland. Which college would you choose to attend? 

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No matter their background, everyone has areas in which they may feel less advantaged than others. If you are looking for a source of motivation to overcome these challenges over the summer, I would highly recommend reading David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. As we leap onto our sophomore year, this book would empower you to keep on improving yourself in your own small pond.

- Yelim