What Is An Underdog?

There are underdogs in every walk of life, from business to sports. Basically, an underdog is anyone who is at a perceived disadvantage, who is perceived by others to be weaker than their opponent.

But underdogs have a history of shocking the world, we can see it in all walks of life:

The Bible- this is the Greatest underdog story of all time, David defeating the giant Goliath. Jacob wrestled an Angel, and the Angel was overcome (major bonus points if you can name the song that line is from).

Movies- Rocky beat Apollo Creed, Clubber Lang, Ivan Drago and on and on. Dodgeball, the true underdog story, Greater (if you haven't seen this, watch it after you read, like and share this blog), Rudy, Dolemite Is My Name

Sports- 1980 USA Hockey team winning the gold medal, Jim Valvano and his rag tag group from NC State winning the NCAA basketball championship, Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl win for the Jets, last night

I could go on and on giving examples. It all boils down to a few common things:

1. Attitude

2. Belief

3. Tenacity

4. Toughness

5. Faith

Now, one can argue that belief and faith are one and the same but I am here to tell you they are quite different. A simple example is to take a little trip to Gilmour, especially this time of year. Ask the Pre-K and then the 2nd graders if they believe in Santa Claus. The Pre-K's eyes will light up with excitement and faith in anticipation of Santa bringing them their tablets so they too can read the daily treasures found on the SofaKing Sports blog. Whereas the 2nd graders will give you a wry smile, indicating that they still believe in Santa but have seen the ads and adults talk about which is laptop is the better bargain and has the best screen resolution for watching Porterhouse videos.

While at first it doesn't seem like a big difference, in reality it is huge. Believing is knowing you are able to do something. Faith is knowing you CAN do something. Gotta have belief before you can have faith.

Believing starts with having the right attitude. Knowing that you have to prepare the right way, stick to the plan and not allowing little things that don't go your way affect your mindset of achieving your goal.

Tenacity, this is where you tell yourself and the people around you that you're going to work hard to get onto Noah's Ark like you're the third lion left and it's starting to rain. You have a goal in front of you and you believe you can make it.

Toughness- you may be the third lion but that means that there are two more out there and they don't like getting wet anymore than you do. You're gonna have to bust your butt to get on that boat. You may get beat down a bit, scrape a few knuckles, get a few bruises but that won't be nearly enough to hold you back. Those other lions may be bigger and stronger, have nicer facilities, whatever because you have the stronger attitude, belief, tenacity and faith that you will accomplish your goal.

Put those things together, as a team and get a little luck and you just