David & Goliath

Be a Misfit, be an Underdog, Battle Giants... Do you know the story of David & Goliath? A battle between the Philistines and the Israelites. In those days they often chose their best man to approach and challenge the oppositions best man thus settling who won without a mass bloodshed. So, the Philistines decided they had enough and sent their best man, Goliath to challenge them. He was a giant said to be 6ft 9 suited in armour with a spear and sword in hand. He called upon the Israelites to send their warrior down to fight him to which no one stepped forward, from the back a young shepherd delivering food said he would take on this giant. The commander said you are nothing but a Shepard boy. The shepherd told that when a lion or bear attacked his flock he would follow and attack taking the sheep back from the clutches of these beasts. Goliath was a man of war from a young age, David tended to sheep and right now your probably putting your odds on Goliath and why wouldn’t you, this huge dude against this small boy, I’ll fast forward... as David approaches Goliath with no armour or sword just his bag and some stones, Goliath shouts “ Am I a dog that you should come at me with a stick (referring to David’s shepherd staff). Then this next bit is where history was made. David puts one of his stones into his leather bag as a sling and fires at Goliath's exposed forehead, Goliath falls to the ground. Stunned David runs towards him seizes the giants sword and cuts off his head, as legend goes the Philistines saw their warrior was dead and fled. David the small shepherd boy with no battle or combat experience won. He did what he knew how, he did what was unexpected this allowing him to win. He took a chance, a chance on himself. The legend of this would be used to describe an improbable victory.

If we where to turn this into a modern-day situation, I would refer to something like education. When I was growing up and many moons before me that it seemed you had to go to college or university to be good at something, to have a good job to have a well-paid career. Over the years I’m sure you will have heard of people like Daniel EK ( Spotify) , Bill Gates ( Microsoft ) , Richard Branson ( Virgin ), Steve Jobs ( Apple ) Henry Ford ( Ford Motors ) or even Noah from the Notebook, most of those guys didn’t have a college education or they dropped out fairly early on to pursue their goals, they saw a bigger picture with them in it. They took a chance on living with out what society deemed successful.

Michael Jordan in his early years was told he was too short to play. He did not give up and say, ‘ah yep fair one i'm too short I guess that’s that then.’ He trained harder, he grew taller and he gained more skill and look at him now one of the most iconic sports personalities ever. Why give up just because someone else says you will not do, your too short, not strong enough or that you do not have the qualifications required. If you are passionate enough and want something so badly then why give up. Just like David was not deterred by the fact he was not a warrior.

It used to annoy me the amount of time I wasted mucking around on different subjects trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs I started out in Sports industry before getting bored, i fell out of love with training. Then I worked in hospitality just for a wage, I decided on a girls holiday to Spain for couple years in 2014 as a PR girl for BCM. From there I came back worked in pubs and bars and took that I wanted to open my own bar, so I perused that for a while working my way up the chain there. Surprise I got bored and decided I wanted to go into marketing I loved the idea of promoting businesses online and with photography on different media platforms before that again fizzled out... Then Last year 2019, I started work in a leisure centre. I guess I did a small 360 back to where I started in the fitness industry, I love my job now even the 4:30 am alarm is not that bad. At the start there I said it used to annoy me because I felt I was/had wasted my life drifting about. Now I realise it was not a waste, I have gained so much experience in life, in reading people in having human understanding. Even doing a two-year party stint in Magaluf taught me a lot about myself I met some amazing people I learnt a language, I learnt how to be confident. Life Isn’t all about being on a path and staying on that single path for the rest of your life, Its about taking left and rights, its about going over the bridge or maybe waiting for it to be built, its about going round the round about a couple times because you keep missing the exit. You will find your way. The Chicago Bulls didn’t win every game, but did they quit? Did they give in? No, they kept going they went back to training and looked at what went wrong, looked at how to be better. You have to understand that life is about experience and in experience lies mistakes, and in mistakes lie experience. The reason I decide on this topic today is because I just started reading David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell he has a great collection of books. Another story within the book is of a basketball team of girls who know nothing of the game and who are coached by a coach who also knows nothing of the sport. They play a little abstract using a full court press, they obviously did a few drills but mainly focused on fitness the coach had the girls always running. Guess what they almost always won, because no one was expecting that, it wasn’t the norm, they played how they could and it worked because they knew nothing it allowed them to open their mind to try something out of the box. Just because they were not born with basketball's in hand why does that mean they shouldn't play. It says that other coaches and players got angry at the coach for playing the full court press ( aggressive defence ) as it wasn’t teaching the girls skill of the game, however it was in fact teaching them much more in such that conventions and rules are there to be challenged. This is just a short and sweet example to remind people that just because your; - A young single mum - A non-College/University Educated person - Short - Tall - Homeless - Low on cash - Blind - Working part time Whatever you are you are not misfortunate, your just on that part of your path right now. Just because you left school to work in McDonalds don’t let people look down on you, you may be there now during the day, but that doesn’t mean that your not going home learning your passion. Whether that is on a course of self-study or reading a book for dummies. Just because you didn’t go to college to study Photography does that mean that you cant buy a camera and teach yourself, teach yourself to be the best and just because you didn’t study business doesn’t mean that you can’t open your own photography business. No of course it doesn't... Even if you cannot afford the likes of a camera, why not offer to help someone in the industry for free. Learn from them on the side of your current job. There is always a way, you just have to find one. Don’t give up just because an opportunity isn’t on a plate in front of you that doesn't mean you should starve, go make your own plate, you are your own opportunity. “ When a bird is sitting on a tree it is never afraid of the branch breaking because it’s trust is not in the branch but in its own wings. Always believe in yourself”

Just because you may be the little guy, does not mean you cannot battle with giants. Be David. Thanks for Reading Bee 😊