David And Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell shows that at times obstacles and disadvantage can be used to our advantage especially in business and everyday life.
Gladwell, like a hope preachers shows that a disability, loss of parent or income, rejection and being discriminated against may lead to innate strength like David in the Bible story against Goliath. The book also shows that being a Goliath doesn’t necessarily mean one will be successful. This argument can be used to explain why underdogs or startups beat established congroleramets in various fields. Like how Netflix beat Blockbuster and how Amazon beat Walmart and so forth.
According to Gladwell, though growing up poor is not fun, it can have its advantages against kids who grew up in rich backgrounds because poor kids can be counterintuitive just as being dyslexics or being orphaned can help one to focus on their career goals and become successful in spite of the challenges they face.
The book is about what happens when ordinary people confront giants or powerful opponents or opposition in forms of armies, mighty warriors, disability, misfortune, and oppression. The author wants to show that facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty in a person and that giants are not that powerful after all and have weakness which we can exploit and overpower them because what we think to be of advantage to giants might indeed be their greatest weakness.
