RETHINKING BIG-ASS GIANTS

When we face giants, most of us are overwhelmed with fear, dread, depression, anger, and other strong negative emotions. After all, “Who am I to face a giant? My God, he’s a giant!” And some people seem to have an incredible ability to see and imagine giants everywhere. Some of the things that they have to do at work are giants. Their mate is a giant! So are their children! These powerful opponents oppress them, torment them, and overwhelm them.

Now when the shepherd boy David faced the Philistine giant who was at least 6 foot 9 inches, from all account, he was facing overwhelming odds that were not in his favor. He was a boy, the giant was a seasoned warrior. All he had was a slingshot, the giant had armor, a long sword, heavy metal helmet bronze plates, and short-range spear as “thick as a weaver’s beam.” The giant was also intimidating: “Choose you a man and let him come down to me!” No one moved. “Come to me that I may give your flesh to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field.” Everyone froze.

Everyone, that is, but a young boy. David was enraged that no one would stand up to the insults and so he volunteered. King Saul, to his credit, did try to give David more of a fighting chance by offering his own sword and armor. But David refused. “I cannot walk in these for I am unused to it.” So he goes out to fight the giant with five smooth stones.

At his sight the giant Goliath is insulted. “Am I a dog that you should come to me with sticks?” Of course, that’s what giants do— intimidate and bully, verbally as well as physically. David takes no offense, he just gets busy with the task at hand. Putting one of the stones in the leather pouch of the sling, he fires it off at Goliath’s exposed forehead. Bulls eye! The giant falls, stunned. David runs to him, seizes his sword and cuts off his head. “The Philistines saw that their warrior was dead, and they fled.” Suddenly, against all expectations and predictions, the underdog won.

Malcolm Gladwell in his latest book, David and Goliath (2014), says that while on the surface this may look like a big surprise, it is not. The danger that we face here is the inadequacy of a superficial judgment. On the surface Goliath is large, gigantic and David is small. On the surface, all the power seems to favor the big guy. But there’s more. Gladwell writes: “Goliath’s behavior is puzzling. He is supposed to be a mighty warrior. But he’s not acting like one. He comes down to the valley floor accompanied by an attendant– a servant walking before him, carrying a shield ... But why does Goliath, a man calling for sword-on-sword single combat, need to be assisted by a third party carrying an archer’s shield? What’s more, why does he say to David, ‘Come to me’? Why can’t Goliath go to David? The biblical account emphasizes how slowly Goliath moves, which is an odd thing to say about someone who is alleged to be a battle hero of infinite strength. In any case, why doesn’t Goliath respond much sooner to the sight of David coming down the hillside without any sword or shield

or armor? ... He seems oblivious of what’s happening around him.” (p. 13)

The answer that Gladwell presents is that Goliath had a serious medical condition.

“He looks and sounds like someone suffering from what is call acromegaly— a disease caused by a benign tumor of the pituitary gland. The tumor causes an over-production of human growth hormone, which would explain Goliath’s extraordinary size.”

That would explain why he was led to the valley floor by an attendant. The attendant was his visual guide.

“Why does he move so slowly? Because the world around him is a blur. Why does it take him so long to understand that David has changed the rules? Because he doesn’t see David until David is up close.” (p. 14)

Gladwell highlights that the paradox is that the giant’s very size was also the source of his weakness. As a heavy infantry-man, Goliath assumed that the other side would send him a heavy-infantry-man and that he would engage the other on his terms and from his strength. That’s what he assumed. And his assumptions about the rules of the game which normally worked was precisely his downfall.

David did not make the same assumptions about “power” and “success” and what’s needed to succeed. In this, David essentially changed the rules of the game. David was a projectile warrior, skilled in using the sling with speed and accuracy. So he “ran” toward the giant which changed the game because heavy infantry-men were so weighted down with armor they could not run, but David could. He had speed, maneuverability, and agility which must have been like a blur of images to Goliath. Gladwell writes: “The very thing that gave the giant his size was also the source of his greatest weakness ... The powerful and strong are not always what they seem” (p. 15) .

Accordingly, his book is filled with many other stories about our assumptions of power, success, advantages, and disadvantages. For example, he asks, What really is a disadvantage? Are setbacks, handicaps, etc. always a disadvantage? Then quoting the statistics that two-thirds of all successful entrepreneurs were diagnosed with dyslexia.

“An extraordinarily high number of successful entrepreneurs are dyslexic.” (p. 106). “What does it take to be the person who doesn’t accept the conventional order of things?” (p. 25).

To have a disadvantage, it is not enough to merely have a problem, a challenge, a situation that one has to deal with, or step up to. To have a disadvantage, you have to think of it as a disadvantage, believe it is, and set that as your frame-of-reference. It’s about your interpretations! Your meanings. Gladwell says that there are desirable difficulties (p. 102), desirable because it enables you to unleash possibilities that would never have arisen without the difficulty to challenge you.

So the next time you’re up against a big-ass Giant and feel overwhelmed, it might be a good idea to check your assumptions. How are you thinking about the giant’s advantages and your disadvantages? How could your disadvantages be used to your advantage?