The reason the underdog overcomes the advantaged is because we fail to realize that power is an illusion. In the biblical story of David and Goliath the power dynamics have much to teach us about leadership.
A Misunderstood Story
Malcolm Gladwell, in his excellent Book, David and Goliath, makes the critical point that our contemporary understanding of the David and Goliath story is very different from how the story was seen at the time of the battle. The story wasn’t the tale of a plucky underdog who stood toe-to-toe with an overpowered fighter against enormous odds.
David and Goliath is the story of a slow, lumbering fighter who walked into a fight that he was ill-suited to win. David, armed with a sling, was able to do damage to a melee fighter at range. Goliath, weighed-down by armor, could never close the distance with David to cause him damage. The moment David stepped onto the battlefield with the Philistine, all onlookers knew that Goliath was done. Slingers always beat hand-to-hand fighters.
How did this new narrative, one that would be puzzling to any student of war, one that portrayed the combatant with the tactical advantage as the underdog—the completely outmatched underdog? How did this inaccurate assessment of power end up crystallized in the historical narrative? I believe we give overemphasis to certain aspects of strength and undervalue others. The perceptions we hold in our minds cripple us and blind us to threats that don’t come from traditional sources.
Insurgency and the Illusion of Power
This same miscalculation was committed by naval experts ahead of World War II. Prior to World War II, the big hulking battleship was considered the pinnacle of naval warfare. But the Japanese and American use of naval air power made battleships obsolete. Much like a mosquito with a poison stinger, the seemingly puny aircraft, with its single bomb or torpedo, proved deadly to the capital ships. The planes moved too quickly to be swatted down before inflicting terrible wounds.
Beyond war, history is replete with examples where smaller, faster, more flexible firms successfully contend with and often defeat larger established firms. Toyota outflanked Detroit’s “Big 3” auto makers by embracing ideas that Detroit thought were too costly to implement. Amazon has made most boutique retailers far too expensive to compete. Today, traditional media is being decimated because they are unable to compete with independent creators.
What is the secret of the insurgent? How does a smaller force contend with a larger one? Much like David and Goliath, the insurgent finds a way to force the Goliath to play a different game. The insurgent never fights the battle that Goliath is used to playing. Goliath is heavily armored and extremely strong. He has melee skills that make him almost unbeatable in hand to hand combat. David wins because he forces Goliath to play his game—a game that relies of swift movement and pin-point accuracy at a distance. Goliath lost because he played David’s game.
Why We Misunderstand Power
Still, this may explain how David won, but it doesn’t explain how we remember the tale of David and Goliath so differently than what a fair-minded examination of the event would suggest.
The reason why we’ve taken the wrong lesson from David and Goliath and the reason why we are still surprised when the underdog overcomes the advantaged, is because we fail to realize that, for the most part, power is an illusion. Constraints only work in a closed system. Most power, as we traditionally understand it, emerges from prevailing structures, hierarchy, enforcement, and conformity. These items only exist to the extent that the people who live under these structures permit them to exist. In reality, a surprisingly small number of individuals who refuse to accept the legitimacy of these institutions will always have the ability to dispose of them.
Innovation, free thought, creativity, and flexibility always leaves the incumbent outmaneuvered. But we are conditioned by tradition and complacency to believe that power is unassailable. Power, in closed systems, is hardly more than a paper tiger. The Maginot Line in France, constructed between France and Germany between the World Wars, was a daunting obstacle to a German invasion of France, so the French believed. The Germans simply ran around it. Power is not created through constraint and control. It only drives your adversary into a level of creativity that will assure your own destruction.
Clearly, power is a myth. Influence is a sustainable asset—one that can be nurtured over time. Clinging to power dis-empowers you. Alternatively, building influence makes you unbeatable because the goodwill you create leads to fostering relationships, creativity, and dynamism that will always transcend roadblocks built in closed systems.
Gladwell, M. (2013). David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants. Little, Brown and Company.
