Summary: A brief post outlining the benefits of being the underdog, and why. I aim to show a new perspective of the underdog, without the romanticizing of media.

Be The Underdog

We hear about "the underdog" so much in the media, it's like some sort of hipster deity. Everyone roots for the underdog, imagining that they too could be a David to Earth's Goliaths. It's become such an onanistic concept that I hesitate to use the word here, but bear with me.

The Subtext of "The Underdog

So what does it mean to be the underdog, and why should we aspire to be in that position? Think of it this way: If you're the underdog, you're surrounded by people with more power, experience, and success. It's like having more successful friends. This is the key to learning more. You know the old saying, "show me how much your five closest friends make and I'll tell you how much you earn"? By being in situations where you're the least experienced, you'll be able to learn from everyone else.

Now, I'm not saying that you should be Motorola instead of Apple. The goal is always to be as successful as possible. But if you're Motorola anyway, you should be competing against Apple instead of Blackberry. We can't all start out at the top of the pyramid, and you can't climb higher if you're following the people below you.

Famous Example: Arnie

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a classic example of how we should be pursuing a role as an underdog to better ourselves. First, he took up bodybuilding, and reached the pinnacle of the sport by winning the most prestigious competitions and being widely regarded as the greatest bodybuilder of his time. But then did he continue with that path? Did he rest on his laurels as he slowly lost strength to age and declined into obscurity? No - he had no one to learn from anymore in bodybuilding, so he switched to acting. As an underdog in this business, he was able to diversify his skills quickly and easily. Yet as with all truly driven people, he soon reached a pinnacle in acting as one of, if not the, most famous action hero. Again, realizing the waning returns from staying on that path, Arnold pivoted to politics, and was elected as the Governor of California.

This is exactly what I mean when I say "Be The Underdog." After a certain point, you can no longer surround yourself with people who can help you. When that happens, you need to find a new field to enter, a field where you have room to rise amongst people you can learn from. If you fail to do this, you risk stagnating, falling into a decline as you are brought down to the level of everyone around you.

So that's why you want to be the underdog. It's not because there's anything romantic or heroic about facing long odds, it's because you can only improve yourself when you have people better than you to learn from.

Lessons Learned: Basically the paragraph above. Being the underdog means that you're surrounded by better people, people you can learn from. If you choose not to be the underdog, and compete against people worse than you, you'll fail to learn anything and you'll never improve.