We know the story by heart. Running fast along the path, the hare laughs at the tortoise slowly laboring along. Humiliated, the tortoise challenges the hare to join a race. Slowly and steadily, the tortoise reaches the finishing line, even as the hare clumsily runs after a short nap, which unfortunately had turned into a long one!!
Moral of the story: Slow and steady wins the race. The moral captures the behavior, it misses the mindset – the mindset of an underdog!
Tortoise was operating from the mindset of an underdog. It had nothing to lose, and everything to win…..
When operating from an underdog mindset,
- Our motto becomes ‘Never give up’. When we fall, we get up, dust ourselves and start to walk or run again. Even as the cycle of run-fall-rise-learn-run become unending, underdogs focus not on the falls, but on the learning from the failures. Thus, getting smarter and better along the way
- Away from the limelight, we have an opportunity to observe others around us – learn from their success and their mistakes and constantly improve and develop ourselves
- Finally, as an underdog, we set our own metrics and challenge ourselves, competing with ourselves rather than with others. We set our own benchmarks
Question remains:
- How comfortable are we to to be an underdog – as an individual, team or organization?
- Do we recognize the situations when adopting underdog mindset it the best one.
Perspectives 