How Smart Underdogs Think

How Smart Underdogs Think


The underdog is always thinking about what the strong are about to do – life and limb may depend on it.
The underdog is holistic. Since s/he cannot win a head-on confrontation, s/he has to find other ways of surviving
The underdog is always adapting. In order to survive, the underdog has to learn with every move.
The underdog plays a waiting game. Circumstances are not in his favor, so patience is a necessity in many situations.
The underdog is creative. The underdog’s means are limited, and usually dramatically more limited than the means available to others.
The underdog sees the big picture. The underdog is used to living and acting in a hostile and unpredictable environment. S/he developed the habit of seeing the context beyond his immediate circumstances.
The underdog is constantly scanning his environment for possible threats and for possible opportunities.
The underdog specifically designs each action to suit his strategy. The underdog sees the impact of every action, every tactics, on the whole picture, and takes all the potential consequences into account when s/he designs his/her tactics or actions.
The underdog is constantly forecasting for all events and all other actors, and invests in the development of even unlikely scenarios.
The underdog assumes s/he will lose any direct confrontation.
The underdog will break even his/her own rules of behavior in order to achieve his goal. This does not mean the underdog is immoral or dishonest; it means s/he has struggled to survive.
The underdog’s passions or passionate feelings are engaged.
Thinking like an underdog is not just when there is a problem; it is operating all the time, when looking for a job, doing housework, shopping. In some cases, they can be operating in an atmosphere of fear.

All of the differences in the way they think are summed up by the core idea. The core idea forces the use of more than the rational way most of us are taught in school. It calls on experience, judgment, intuition and everything else that has been learned in the past.

Laure Paquette, Ph.D.
Laure.Paquette@Lakeheadu.ca