Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great article for The New Yorker a while ago. He talks about how David beats Goliath. It’s a great read full of stories about underdogs.
The main story is about a girl’s basketball team that made the national championships when they shouldn’t have won a game. The other stories – from David to Lawrence of Arabia – all support why these girls were able to achieve what they did.
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Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss how small can have the advantage over bigg on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [5:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Hear George & Mary-Lynn discuss how small can have the advantage over bigg on The Bigg Success Show! Click the player to listen [5:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download___
He cites a study that showed that small armies beat superior opponents a little over one-fourth of the time (28.5%). However, when these underdogs ignored the conventions of war and fought on their own terms, they won nearly two-thirds of the time (63.6%)!
So you’re two times more likely to win if you set the rules of the game!
Set your terms to get your terms
Bigg success is life on your own terms. So it turns out that it’s a circle. You set the terms (your strategy) so you get the terms you desire (your mission).
You are the entrepreneur of your life. You’re in charge. Set the terms for the battles you engage in so you’re more likely to win those battles.
Small businesses, the Davids of the business world, can trump the Goliaths. Not by trying to compete head on. Not by following the conventions.
By crafting strategies that may fly in the face of wisdom and engaging the Goliaths in unfamiliar ways, Davids can be victorious.
The price for bigg success
If you plan to go head-to-head with the Goliaths, there’s a price you must be willing to pay.
It takes effort. You have to be willing to work longer. You have to work harder. As Gladwell says, effort trumps ability.
He cites the girls’ basketball team. Their secret? A full court press. Not just when the game was in its final minutes like a lot of teams do. These girls used a full court press for the entire game.
It rattled their opponents who hadn’t practiced for a full court press. Their standard plays started at half court. By engaging their opponents on the whole court, these girls put them on unfamiliar turf.
There are many ways today for small businesses – even solopreneurs – to trump large competitors. In many cases, they don’t involve money. They involve time. But that’s okay because you know that effort trumps ability if you focus that effort on unconventional tactics.
That’s how to make your small business a bigg success!
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Thank you so much for checking in with us today. Next time, we’ll chat about why women shouldn’t compete with men. Or is it the other way around? Please join us next time to find out. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!
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There’s a great page on the Emory University site called 
My first real at-risk business was a Ben Franklin franchise in my hometown. It’s a small town so back-to-school is a bigg season. We wanted to be open in time to capitalize on it. My franchise representative told me it couldn’t be done. His boss said it couldn’t be done. We determined we were going to do it. So we did! We opened to throngs of people patronizing our store and a bigg splash by the local media splash. It was a hit!
When I was in high school, I tried out for the basketball team. I made the first cut. I made the second cut. When the final cut came out, I looked at the list and my name wasn’t on it. I looked again. I couldn’t believe it! But I hadn’t made the team. So I took up music. I won awards. I even won a scholarship. My failure to make the basketball team allowed for bigger success in music than I could have ever imagined!
