Book Review: David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

One of the reasons we love Malcolm Gladwell’s books is the way he uses the art of storytelling to contradict common assumptions about the way things work.

In this aspect, his new book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, is full of well-researched, counterintuitive arguments that demonstrate patterns and connect the dots between seemingly unrelated events. In short, it does not disappoint.gladwell_david-and-goliath

As we’ve come to expect from a writer of his caliber, Gladwell grips you from the start, with the timeless story of David, the Israelite, and Goliath, the Philistine, and why the duel between them revealed the folly of our assumptions about power.

Gladwell argues that we “continue to make that error today, in ways that have consequences for everything, from how we educate our children, to how we fight crime and disorder.”

“Why,” he says, “do we automatically assume that someone who is smaller, or poorer, or less skilled is necessarily at a disadvantage?” Especially when history shows us that underdogs win more often than we think. “That’s because underdog strategies are hard,” he notes.

“To play by David’s rules, you have to be desperate,” he says. “You have to be so bad that you have no choice.” With stories from basketball to Lawrence of Arabia, he demonstrates how prestige and belonging to elite institutions (think MBAs), can actually limit our options. And how being an underdog and a misfit can give you the freedom to try things no one else has ever dreamt of.

He goes on to demonstrate, with some surprising statistics, how too small a class size and too much family wealth can, both be disadvantageous to children, and why it’s wrong to assume that being bigger, and stronger, and richer, is always in our best interest.

I found particularly fascinating the story of how the Impressionists succeeded by choosing to be the Big Fish in a Little Pond of their own creation. You’ll learn why, the more elite an educational institution is, the worse students feel about their own academic abilities.

So, if you did not make it through to the IITs (or Harvard, Yale or MIT), take heart. It’s better to be a Big Fish in a Very Welcoming Small Pond than a Little Fish in a Very Big and Scary Pond, says Gladwell. And going to that less competitive college might be the best thing you’ll ever do for your self-confidence and your career.

While it might seem counterintuitive to talent hunters, statistics show that hiring the best students from “mediocre” schools would be better than going after good students from the very best schools. “We have a definition in our heads of what an advantage is – and the definition isn’t right,” says Gladwell. “It’s the Little Pond that maximizes your chances to do whatever you want.”

[bctt tweet=”We have a definition in our heads of what an advantage is – and the definition isn’t right. ~ @Gladwell” via=”no”]

My favourite part, however, was when, using the fact that an extraordinarily high number of successful entrepreneurs (including British billionaire, Richard Branson) are dyslexic, he asks the controversial question, “Can dyslexia turn out to be a desirable difficulty?” Could it be that they succeeded, in part, because of their disorder?

[bctt tweet=”Can dyslexia turn out to be a desirable difficulty? ~ @Gladwell, David and Goliath” via=”no”]

When something, like your sense of sight, is taken away from you, your brain compensates by sharpening your other senses. In the same way, could dyslexics learn to compensate for their reading difficulty by becoming better listeners and learning to understand the nuances of human communication better than their peers? That does seem to be the case. As Gladwell states, “What is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily.”

[bctt tweet=”What is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily. ~ @Gladwell” via=”no”]

But the dyslexics who succeed also seem to have a special brand of stubbornness coupled with a highly developed ability to deal with failure, and the tendency to not care a damn for the approval of others – qualities that many a successful entrepreneur shares. These are the coping strategies they developed in a world that looks down on those who cannot keep up academically, but that gave them an advantage in the world of business, where disruption is greatly valued.

Personally, I like to see these so-called disorders, that the psychiatric profession is so quick to diagnose nowadays, as “gifts” that help us see the world in ways that others can’t. I used to think it was just me (and a bunch of other people who believe in a more inclusive world) that thought this way, so Gladwell’s argument that being “differently-abled” can be turned into an advantage delights me.

I believe that we will, one day, see the same argument put to people with autism. The evidence is already there. We just need someone like Gladwell to dig it up for us.

In the vein of what doesn’t kill you make you stronger, his next chapter speaks of the acquired, uncommon courage of those who survive either an event like the bombing of London by the Germans, or of losing a parent in childhood.

It reminded me of the courage of the people of Mumbai who are known for going back to work the day after a bombing by terrorists. With so many “remote misses” to create a feeling of invincibility, no other city in India can claim such nonchalance in the face of terror.

It’s his chapter on Wyatt Walker that I find the most unsettling, where he defends Walker’s use of children in Birmingham’s civil rights marches. “Our definition of what is right is, as often as not, simply the way that people in positions of privilege close the door on those on the outside,” states Gladwell.

Since Birmingham, child soldiers have been used by mercenaries like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone in their battle against the Goliaths they were fighting, with disastrous consequences for the children involved (if you want to understand what happened to the children drafted into the RUF, I recommend you watch the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer, Blood Diamond).

So, no, I don’t think Birmingham is really the right kind of example to make in the David vs Goliath battles, no matter how worthy the cause.

Weaving a common thread through the stories of crime in America, and the war between the Irish and Prostestants in Northern Ireland, Gladwell goes on to show how “the excessive use of force creates legitimacy problems, and force without legitimacy leads to defiance, not submission.”

Gladwell wraps up the book with the beautiful and heartwarming story of Andre´ Trocme´ and the village of Le Chambon in France that protected Jews in defiance of the Nazi invaders. As he notes so eloquently, “The powerful are not as powerful as they seem – nor the weak as weak.”

[bctt tweet=”The powerful are not as powerful as they seem – nor the weak as weak. ~ @Gladwell, David and Goliath” via=”no”]

Book Review: Dream With Your Eyes Open by Ronnie Screwvala

Growing up in the Bombay of the 70s, I remember Ronnie Screwvala from his days as a theatre personality in Bombay. I recall seeing the ads for The Wiz, a production of his theatre company, Lazer Productions, in the newspapers of that time.

From playing Cassio in Othello to starting UTV, I knew nothing of his journey, until I started reading his new book, Dream With Your Eyes Open.Dream With Your Eyes Open

His book gives us both, a glimpse into his journey of entrepreneurship, and insight into Ronnie Screwvala, the human being – an enterprising, charming and very down-to-earth South Bombay Parsi gentleman with a “can-do” attitude that never quits.

I laughed out loud when he described a cobra scene that just went on and on in the first flop movie he produced.

I felt for him when he wrote about his failure in college and what he learned from it.

I could totally empathise with his distaste at the intrusion of mobile phones in personal communications, this being one of my own pet peeves.

To quote from his book, “Few things are ruder and quite frankly more arrogant than chatting on or tapping away at a phone and ignoring someone who takes time out of his day to sit with you one-on-one or in a group… Attentive and courteous communication breeds a healthy corporate culture.”

He goes on to discuss how he insists on parking mobile phones outside during meetings. I think if more companies begin to adopt this practice, it will greatly improve the quality of our personal communications. It might be a good rule to enforce at the dinner table too.

A very down-to-earth outlook is evident in his observations like, “A lively office culture doesn’t always come from big spaces… The concept of the top-floor corner office is archaic and reeks of an isolated top management team.”

One of the things he emphasizes for an entrepreneur is the role of communicating your message well, and the importance of using the method of communication that comes most easily to you – whether oratorical or email.

In Dream With Your Eyes OpenScrewvala takes us on a tour of his motivations, challenges, victories, failures and missed opportunities – from starting out as a manufacturer of toothbrushes to becoming a content provider for Zee TV, to his innings as an international movie producer.

Though not chronologically, he weaves in tales of his disruptive approach to the media industry, like producing the daily soap, Shanti, and going on to start Hungama TV with its hugely popular shows, Doraemon and (my personal favourite) Shin-Chan.

Many entrepreneurs will enjoy reading the inside story of the takeover of Hungama TV and UTV by Disney followed by his exit from the media industry.

[bctt tweet=”True disruption requires urgency across the long term! ~ @RonnieScrewvala, Dream With Your Eyes Open” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”When you’re being disruptive, there are no half measures. You go all the way, or you drop out. ~ @RonnieScrewvala” via=”no”]

I was especially struck by his account of the exhaustive legwork he undertook to build his cable company, even going on door-to-door sales calls himself. It made me appreciate, even more, his determination to do whatever it takes to understand his customer and provide value to them.

He explains why success has more to do with preparation than luck and offers invaluable tips on learning to grow and scale a business – a section I found especially useful to me.

Tweetables from the book:

[bctt tweet=”Embrace failure. But understand that failure is a comma, not a full stop. ~ @RonnieScrewvala” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”Lose your best people and no amount of data or money will lead to success. ~ @RonnieScrewvala” via=”no”]

[bctt tweet=”Entrepreneurs don’t worry whether or not the world is flat. They’re too busy building businesses. ~ @RonnieScrewvala” via=”no”]

Some of the passages that impacted me the most:

I am skeptical about that age-old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Whoever said that didn’t understand the pleasure that comes from growing a business, pushing boundaries and crashing conventions along the way.

 

The twenty-first century – governed by technology, the democratization of the consumer base and access to information – is all about collaboration and winning, not killing the competition and taking it all as the winner.

 

In the twenty-first century, it’s all right to not be the first one to hit upon an idea. It’s fine to be a smart second or third, with a lot of insights from others.

Screwvala also has interesting views on that bane of all business meetings – presentations – and has a sharp word for critics, most of whom “have never created, or built anything” and “act as though they are experts in the room.”

“Let criticism and public failure strengthen you, not diminish you,” he says. “In the end, you’re not answerable to anyone but yourself.”

Dream With Your Eyes Open is a book that every entrepreneur (or wannabe entrepreneur) in India should read if they want to understand what it takes to build an empire. Many readers will find their most pertinent questions answered in the appendix, which is structured as a Q&A section.

On completing the book, my wish for Ronnie Screwvala is the very same one his mother expresses, “Why don’t you go back to theatre?” I guess I’m rather fond of remembering him on stage because it’s where I first heard his name.

However, his second innings seem to lie in being the owner of a kabaddi team, rather than on Mumbai’s stage. All I can say is that I’ll be watching his future ventures with keen interest.

Dream With Your Eyes Open is available at all major bookstores.