Author: Malcolm Gladwell
_Malcolm Gladwell_
Reading time: 24 minutes
Synopsis
David and Goliath (2013) tells stories about underdogs. These underdogs beat stronger opponents, even when no one expected them to. The stories change our usual ideas about success. They show the bad sides of being privileged. They also show how difficulties can actually help us. Using many studies and past examples, these blinks suggest new ways to help people who are socially weak. These are people who often only get noticed when they commit crimes.
What’s in it for you: Learn how weaknesses can become strengths.
You probably know the Bible story of David and Goliath. In it, a small shepherd boy beats a giant warrior. He wins thanks to his cleverness and his skill with a slingshot. This story is often told to show how weaker people can succeed, even when times are very hard.
But was David really the underdog in that fight in the Valley of Elah?
Not really. A slingshot is a very powerful weapon. It can throw stones at people from a distance. This distance is much further than a sword can reach. Also, David was very good with the slingshot. He often had to protect his sheep from wild animals. So, Goliath never really had a chance. In the next blinks, you will see that our ideas about “underdogs” are not always correct. We don’t always know who truly has the advantage.
You will also find out:
- why being at a disadvantage can sometimes be good,
- why elite schools can sometimes lead to worse education, and
- how a photo of a dog attacking a child changed the world.
Blink 1 – Competing with the best can hurt your self-confidence and stop your success.
When we move from primary school to secondary school and then to university or college, the demands always get higher. We often meet classmates who are better than us. This is true throughout our lives. The further we go, the more people we meet who have skills we don’t.
When we see that others have better skills than us, we want to compete. We want to be part of the best. But this way of thinking does not help us. Competing with the best only makes us feel “relatively deprived.” When we compare ourselves to them, we lose self-confidence. This makes us fail in the areas where we really want to succeed. For example, talented students who go to top universities compete with the very best. They are more likely to fail than equally smart students at less famous schools.
If competing with the best harms your self-confidence, then you should stop comparing yourself. Instead, create your own special place. Do not let the need to be accepted by your group stop you from following what you love. History is full of famous people. They became famous not because they fought against the best. They became famous because they followed their own path.
In the 1800s, the Salon de Paris was the most important art show in Europe. The artworks shown there were very popular, and their value went up quickly. Early Impressionist painters tried to show their art at the Salon de Paris, but they could not. Their new style was not liked. So, they stopped trying to impress the best. Instead, they showed their own art. And they were very successful.
If they had let the Salon de Paris tell them how to paint, they would not have changed art history so much.
Blink 2 – A privileged background can stop children from learning important life lessons.
We think that children from rich families who have had a special education grow up happy and healthy. But a too-privileged environment can make it harder for children to grow as people.
One example is that children of rich parents often do not learn to be independent. Many of these children can live off their parents’ money for their whole lives. So, they never learn that they need to work hard and think for themselves.
People from less rich or poor backgrounds usually learn important lessons early. They learn about the value of money and how to use it. For example, they might need part-time jobs while at school to pay for a cinema trip. Trying to have a better life than their parents can make people want to study more. It might even make them start their own business. If these people then make a lot of money and have children, their children may never value money as much as they did. This is because their children will not face the same money problems.
Too much privilege can also make it harder for children to learn. The most special schools often talk about having small classes. But this does not always mean better school success. In classes with 40 students, not every child can get the busy teacher’s attention. But with fewer students, teachers can give more attention to each child, which helps them. However, if the class size drops to twelve or fewer privileged students, children have fewer classmates to learn from and talk with. This means fewer discussions with different ideas.
Private schools attract parents with small, similar classes. But these very structures stop children from having a rich and active learning environment. This is another example of the bad side of privileged lives.
Blink 3 – Weaknesses in one area can lead to strengths in another.
Do you know this question: A bat and a ball together cost €1.10. How much does the ball cost if the bat costs €1 more than the ball? If you quickly think the ball costs 10 cents, you are wrong. It only costs 5 cents. Most people make this small mistake because they read the question quickly and guess the wrong answer.
The bat-and-ball question comes from an intelligence test. Students at the famous Princeton University took this test. Normally, about 1.9 out of 3 students got the right answer. But when the test was written in a hard-to-read font, students had to pay more attention. Then, about 2.45 out of 3 students answered correctly. So, if you are forced to read slower, you are less likely to make such a mistake.
The interesting thing about this experiment is: People who have to learn under difficult conditions, like dyslexia, can solve questions like this better. Their disadvantage in one area helps them develop skills in another area. These are skills that others do not have.
David Boies is one of the most powerful lawyers in the USA. He also has dyslexia. Reading is very hard for him. But he has amazing hearing and can remember what others say very well. He only reads summaries of cases to prepare. But in court, his great memory and his skill in noticing the smallest pause in a witness’s words help him. He can then ask about things the witness is trying to hide.
Boies’ struggle with reading helped him develop special skills. He became better at noticing and thinking about things. This gave him surprising advantages.
Blink 4 – Difficult experiences can lead to more courage and strength, and inspire success.
The famous British writers John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Jonathan Swift had one thing in common. They all lost a parent when they were young. This bad luck did not only happen to them. Many famous people had this experience as children, from scientists to presidents. A study looked at famous people listed in encyclopedias. It found something amazing: 45% of these people lost a parent before they were 20 years old.
Many people think such a sad event would ruin a person’s future. But as we see from the lives of these famous people, the opposite is true. It often gives them a push to have a very special career.
This can be explained because fighting against hard times can bring out great strength in people. Even though a big personal loss when young is very hard emotionally, it can push people to achieve great things. We can get a lot of motivation from difficult experiences. Children who grow up in “perfect families” often do not have the same level of drive and strength. That is why many inventors and successful people often had a difficult childhood.
The life of the successful American doctor and scientist Emil Freireich shows this again. Freireich’s father took his own life when Emil was very young. This left his family very poor and emotionally broken. Emil was determined to escape poverty. He studied hard and became a doctor. His wish to make up for the suffering he had known pushed him to succeed. He spent years finding new ways to treat people with leukemia. Finally, he found a treatment for children with leukemia that is now widely used. It helps 90% of children get better.
Freireich’s difficult childhood may have greatly helped to shape his strong character and his strong will to reach his goals.
Blink 5 – Unusual strategies help underdogs succeed.
In many films and books, the weaker ones are often the ones who win in the end. But it is not that simple in real life. When two unequal rivals fight directly, the one with more resources and money often beats the other. But even if the underdog has no chance in a direct fight against a stronger opponent, they can use unexpected tactics to increase their chances of winning.
The history of human wars proves this. Weaker armies often beat stronger enemies. They did this by avoiding direct battles. Instead, they used smarter strategies, like breaking enemy transport and communication systems. In many battles, the weaker army won against a powerful enemy thanks to such clever tactics. One study found that weaker armies won 63% of battles when they used such guerrilla tactics. But they only won 29% when they used normal methods.
How did these underdogs come up with the strategies that helped them win? They focused on their own strengths. This made their abilities stronger. They also avoided situations where their enemies’ strengths could be used.
In 1917, T. E. Lawrence, also called Lawrence of Arabia, led a small group of Arabs. They fought against the powerful Ottoman Empire. Most of the Arabs had little fighting experience. The Ottoman army was modern and well-equipped. Many Arabs, on the other hand, had never even held a rifle before. But the Arabs were good at traveling light and knew how to find water in the desert. Using these strengths, they eventually won. The Turks expected them to attack from the port. Instead, the Arabs surprised them by attacking from the Syrian desert. This strategy allowed the Arabs to drive the enemy out of the city and win the battle.
This example shows that underdogs must focus on their own special strengths. They should not try to beat a stronger enemy by using the enemy’s own methods.
Blink 6 – Cunning and trickery are an underdog’s most important weapons.
The US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s started with a group of people who were treated unfairly. They wanted to convince a much larger and doubtful group that their movement and their ideas of justice were important. To reach this goal, they sometimes had to use tricks and small deceptions against their opponents.
One trick was to make the authorities and the public believe that their movement was much bigger and stronger than it really was. Few people came to many announced rallies. So, the organizers waited until after work to start the protests. The large number of people leaving their offices made the crowd of protesters seem much bigger. Children from the neighborhood were also asked to skip school and join. This made the police think there were hundreds more protesters than there actually were.
The activists knew they had to look like a powerful group if they wanted to be taken seriously. But they also knew that size alone would not be enough. They needed the media to spread their message.
Deception and manipulation helped them reach their goal again. During some protests, activists made the police react with anger. They did this on purpose, in front of photographers and cameras. Protesters were pushed away with water cannons. Young people were roughly pulled into police cars, and many people were arrested. The activists then publicly showed shock at the police violence. But in secret, they were happy about the attention this event got in the media.
In the end, the media attention greatly helped them reach their goal. One photo especially made headlines. It showed a child being attacked by a police dog. This image caused so much shock in the White House that it greatly helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The events of the Civil Rights Movement show that clever tricks are often key when fighting a powerful opponent. For example, if the weaker group pretends to be more powerful than it is, it can, in the best case, win the fight.
Blink 7 – To succeed, you must be ready to take risks and not care what others think.
Imagine if everyone believed everything they heard. Everyone would simply obey authority. Everyone would follow the pressure from their surroundings. Such a world would not only be politically dangerous but also boring and dull. There would be no new ideas and no independent thinking. We owe revolutions and new ideas to “difficult” people. These people ignore social rules and do not care what others think.
A study of the Big Five personality test, the most common personality test, showed something interesting. Successful business owners often have a strong tendency to be difficult. Their willingness to take social risks and their courage to stand up for their beliefs are key to their success. These personality traits help them make their plans happen. They do this even if others disapprove. They also do it even if they might lose power and influence.
If you want to succeed, you cannot care too much what others think of you. You must push your own ideas. Only when you stop worrying about what people think of you will you gain the strength you need to reach your goal.
IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was also very determined. In the 1960s, angry Swedish furniture makers put pressure on him because of his low prices. Suppliers stopped working with his company. Kamprad felt close to financial ruin. But he was ready to do what no one else would have done. He made deals with communist Poland. This was when the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis were at their worst. At a time when the Berlin Wall was built and caused much anger, Kamprad could have quickly been called a traitor. But his bold step paid off. IKEA grew very fast.
The company’s huge success was only possible because Kamprad did not let his need for social acceptance stop him.
Blink 8 – Harsh punishments make social inequality worse.
Of course, not every underdog from a troubled home becomes a business owner and a millionaire. When someone is poor and without power, the dark side of powerlessness often appears: crime. Here too, we see a David and Goliath situation. The powerful government wants to keep crime low. To do this, it often uses very strong measures. But do these very harsh measures actually help?
Some economists believe that people always act logically. They think that law and order can be found using math. They say everything is just a cost-benefit calculation. According to this idea, crime and civil unrest go down if the costs to fight them are high enough. For example, tougher punishments are supposed to solve all problems. But this is not true.
Just putting more people in prison does not stop criminals from doing more crimes. In fact, crime often goes up after more people are put in prison. This is because the families of prisoners – their children, partners, parents, and siblings – often face money problems and emotional difficulties. This leads to more instability in the community. Children of jailed parents are more likely to commit crimes themselves. This is because they lack good role models and money safety.
A cycle of growing violence is started by authorities who punish civil unrest with extreme measures. For example, in the 1970s, the British government reacted to the conflict in Northern Ireland with extreme actions against the Catholic minority. They carried out many house searches. They locked up suspects for endless time without a trial. And they took away some freedom from the whole group by setting curfews.
The British authorities treated all Catholics as suspects. This soon made young men more extreme. This led to a hardening of positions. The result was not less, but more violence. Shootings, murder attempts, and bombings got worse and worse.
There are limits beyond which punishments no longer work. They often cause more suffering than help.
Blink 9 – Citizens do not obey authorities if they see them as an unfair enemy.
We like to think that the government only works for our good, keeping law and order. We imagine it only sets laws, but never tells us how to think. But the truth often goes against this idea.
As soon as we see the government as our enemy, we do not want to follow its laws anymore. One study found that 69% of African American high school dropouts born in the 1970s ended up in prison. Their harsh punishment made the communities they belonged to feel that the police and the justice system were unfair and not truly representing them. The families and friends of those arrested rebelled against the authorities who took their loved ones away. They saw this as a matter of honor.
If authorities want to prevent crimes, they must get rid of their enemy image. They can do this by treating their citizens more kindly. This way, conflicts among people can be solved more peacefully.
In 2003, the New York City police started a project in public housing. They wanted to fight the problem of high youth crime. Police officers got to know the young offenders. Soon, they knew them better than their own family members did. They helped them get back to school, find jobs, and deal with official paperwork. Even with problems at first, the team slowly gained the trust and liking of the residents. For example, they gave out turkeys at Thanksgiving. The result was a big drop in theft and crime rates. This was mainly because the police and government were no longer seen as enemies.
We must make sure that those in power act fairly. They must also give a voice to the weakest people in society.
Summary
Power, wealth, and good health are not the only things you need to succeed. They can even make it harder. Things that seem like disadvantages, such as learning difficulties or bad childhood experiences, can actually inspire people to achieve great things. Underdogs can gain an advantage by using indirect and unusual methods. However, if a government wants to help underdogs who turn to crime, it must not use harsh methods. It should not use its power like Goliath.
What you can actually do:
Help those who are less privileged to create more equality. If you want to do something important in your life, you can help the outsiders and rejected people in our society. Many people cannot use their full potential because they lack education, good health, or money. On the other hand, many leaders have had all the luck in the world, yet they are corrupt or go down the wrong path. Give a voice to the weak and disadvantaged to fight this unfair power balance.
Source: https://www.blinkist.com/https://www.blinkist.com/de/books/david-und-goliath-de