‘When an underdog wins, they win for everybody.’

The whole quote by Saint Jhn reads, “When an underdog wins, they win for everybody because somebody gotta come through that door and break it open and make it possible.”

The quote, but re-imagined by AI 😉

One of the indubitable duads in which the world can be divided is -Leaders and Followers. Who is a leader- the favourite question of every management trainer ever who will tell you that a leader is someone who inspires people, empowers them, and shares visions (and in turn makes big bucks!) Laypeople devise others ways to decide possible leadership attributes. Height (taller folks are easily perceived as leaders because of the obvious obscuring of others), your voice (baritones are 100% leadership material depending on the quality of intimidation), and because Julius Caesar had one- a tall index toe (that cannot guarantee defence against stabbing, however.) 

Followers? Just follow, or is there more to that? *da da daaaa* 

I am no statistician, so I cannot give you numbers, and my limited experience on earth may have caused the fallacy of hasty generalisation, but you can’t blame a girl for trying. Seriously, I tried, but this gnawing thought won’t shake itself off, unless I verbal vomit on a blog almost no one reads, hoping someone would give a rebuttal in a decade or so. It does not help that my brother is blaring, ‘Der Lagi Lekin,’ in the background, so let’s go… or you can go back to what you were doing if you’re not interested. It’s cool- I won’t get to know anyway. *puppy eyes and shrug*

It takes a lot to be a leader (mostly, lot of competition), but let’s not distract ourselves from groups that need to be led. When I say underdog, you’d likely think of- not to take names- but that one unlikely Neville Longbottom-isque person who is timid, unsure, falling on his clumsy butt, but has (somewhat questionable) promise to be better. Which is why, in the final part of the series, he is the climactic slayer of the bloodthirsty serpent who your villain relies on to scare others. You knew that since the time he was mentioned after losing his frog on an outbound moving train that something will come beyond his buckteeth and Remembrall, for he sure had more to himself to belong in Gryffindor, but he didn’t have a scar to show for it- just his buckteeth.

You see underdogs everywhere because they may not have the glowing aura of impending victory like a halo even as they slept, but underdogs are terrible at hiding and laying low. Their potential is not always on display (possibly a strategy to conserve battery life- tech joke, hehe), but it sure spews out like a mighty volcano when the time is opportune. And before you know it, you have a trophy in your hand- whaaat?

An example closer to home is possibly Dinesh Karthik (agreetodisagree agreetodisagree agreetodisagree). Brace yourself for a new-to-cricket-but-heart-on-sleeve-weirdo fangirl moment. Except for their style of beard, Kohli and Karthik are poles apart. And I mean North and South could not have been farther. As much as I am and always will be a Kohli stan (BEN STOOOOKESSS!), I cannot help but root for Karthik, who stands a close second in bringing RCB an inch away from qualifiers (agreetodisagree agreetodisagree agreetodisagree). Yes, there is a reason why he is not where Kohli is and he got outdone by Dhoni, but there’s a reason he makes it to the playing eleven, spearheaded KKR to finals, and there’s not everyday you read about someone reinventing their style in what is called the “twilight of their career.” Underdogs strive, stand, and stay.

The examples of underdogs, like I said, are countless- they’re clustered like stars in the sky- dying out but only to glow again. From Valtteri Bottas in Formula 1 to Ser Jorah Mormont in The Game of Thrones- who’d have thunk these names would come in the same sentence? I see them as crests of perseverance. Underdogs fight till the final moment, they keep outdoing personal bests, push till their last breath, and then do it all again. They don’t know what’s giving up like. But vying for leadership, we may slack out on fully utilising the underdog potential. Wouldn’t you agree that we constantly estimate the odds against us and how much people expect us to fail?

The upside of this is- you tell an underdog that they cannot do something, they will pave a path to supersede your expectations (and tbh, theirs too). Now, keep calm, I am going to sound uber cool because here is a reference to Harvard Business Review (trying not get carried away in smugness). A study in HBR did in fact suggest that underdog expectations can be predictor of quality productivity- of course, based off a lot of factors, but it’s a great surface level stimulus to get your best. The need is not to actually prove people wrong, but proving yourself. So, what can be done?

Carl Rogers pioneered the idea of our inherent tendency to become a better version of ourselves as long as we are allowed. So, here is the first stepping stone towards that. We all do things differently and possess unique abilities. One person- your perceived leader- can be responsible for the team as a whole, single unit, but not its members. However, a leader’s keen eye for individual strengths is an asset for the members to lead themselves. Delegation is key here. You see, there is no perfect person. We cannot be good at everything. But what we can do is, hone our strengths, and let these strengths play a role in the big picture success. A deck of cards, is a deck of cards because an Ace cannot always be everything to save you against what you are dealt with.

So, what do you think?

PS: If I failed to pick your brain on this, here’s for what it’s worth- leaders bear the brunt for almost everything almost all the time; underdogs ruffle feathers a lot less.