How David Beats Goliath

I highly recommend the New Yorker article on May 6, 2009 by Malcolm Gladwell, "How David Beats Goliath"

The sub-title is "When underdogs break the rules" but I think it is more appropriately "When underdogs break with existing conventions." Often people give these conventions the weight of rules, but they aren't breaking any rules by doing it. Gladwell talks about the basketball team that plays the full court press for the whole game and wins on legs instead of arms. They didn't break any rules they went against the convention.

We seem to want rules so bad that we create them in our minds to cover the way we want to approach situations. There's no rule that says a Walmart can't build stores in rural areas but that doesn't stop us from vilifying them. From the barber who opens on Sunday to the medical clinic that opens in a drug store...David beats Goliath by going against convention. Gladwell calls it being "socially horrifying".

What does that mean for you? Are you David or Goliath? If you're Goliath, what can you do to create the urgency that will keep you moving forward?