David And Goliath Summary

In David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell, he describes the winning of the underdogs through chapter one “Vivek Ranadive”. The underdogs are Davis, T.E. Lawrence, the Fordham University, Vivek Ranadive and his basketball team. They all have same common that they would be considered underdogs are they are not powerful, big, good skills and strength. They are totally opposite with their opponents. Their opponents are strong and powerful. In a battle, people will think they are going to lose their opponents no matter what; they just have a little chance to win in a fight or content. This is what everyone think about the underdogs. But Gladwell argue that this is wrong. He explains and shows us many examples to prove that the underdogs often win

in fight or battle: David won Goliath, T.E. Lawrence won Turks, the Fordham university’s team beat University of Massachusetts in a basketball game, Vivek Ranadive and his basketball team had won many basketball games.

The common characteristics allowed all of the underdogs to prevail in challenge situations are they are willing to do things they want and never give up. They use their knowledge, intelligent and hard work to achieve their goals. They also make their own strategy to fight their opponents. They are doing thing that their opponents never expect that. According to Gladwell, not all the underdogs do what it takes to prevail because “Underdog strategies are hard”. The underdogs seem have no chance to win in a battle, this make they have to work and practice harder to prevail. There are not every underdogs are going to practice two hours a day; less talking and “moving almost ninety-eight percent of the practice” as Vivek Ranadive basketball team did. Gladwell’s main idea in this chapter is we do not have to be afraid of our weakness, we can beat anything if we work hard and create our own strategies to fit in that battle. We should go outside the box, doing unconventional thing and freedom to create our strategies. My little cousin fits Gladwell's perspective. She is ten years old; she love

dance. But her body is weak and small. Everyone thinks that she cannot dance well because of her small and weakness body. She is a underdog. She never get a chance to attend a dance performance. But she is not give it up easily. She has been exercise everyday to improve her body and going to her dance class everyday to practice until late. At the end, the result come out as David beat goliath, she got into a dance performance on a big stage. This girl never give up and make her own way to achieve her dream. Which is Gladwell’s main idea in this chapter that beat your weakness, work harder, be creative and achieve your reward.