What’s the secret to achieving the impossible?

Let’s start with the word “underdog.”

In 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain. Both sides brought gleaming swords, raging spirits, and fighting dogs to the battlefield. The war instilled a fascination for fighting dogs in the Romans. In the years that followed, large audiences would gather in the Roman Colosseum to watch gladiator dogs pitted against other animals, such as wild elephants.

If you’ve ever been in the market for an elephant, you’ll know a universal truth: elephants are expensive.

So, over time, people turned to dog-on-dog combat. It was then that the word underdog was created to define the dog who lost the fight. Its rival, the expected winner, was called the top dog.

It’s been a few centuries since. In most countries, society has evolved past dogfighting. Along with society, the word “underdog” itself has evolved to mean the entity most likely to lose. Often, that entity is no longer a dog trying to battle another dog, but a person trying to battle something more abstract — like stigma, discrimination, or someone else’s expectations.

At some point in our lives, we’ve all felt the frustration of this battle. You can’t do that, we’re told. It’s the universal underdog experience. We are told to be more realistic with our goals, to know our place, to sit down.

Yet nothing makes us want to stand up more. The question that remains: how? How can we find success when the odds seem stacked against us?

I spent the last year and a half trying to answer this question. I spoke to entrepreneurs from all kinds of backgrounds who struggled to achieve success. They showed me how being the underdog became their biggest advantage. They showed me how they achieved the impossible.

I compiled their stories and insights in a book called Think Outside the Odds, which will be published at the end of the month. But there are many supplementary tidbits and ideas I wanted to share that didn’t make it into the final manuscript.

That’s why I’m starting a 9-part weekly series featuring these exclusive pieces. If there were bloopers for Think Outside the Odds, it would be this: stories from real-life people and companies who embraced being the underdog to create something new for the world. Feeling like the odds are against you isn’t easy, but I hope that through this series, you’ll discover it can be your secret superpower.

Are you ready? Click the orange mail button to follow along. Let’s get this adventure started.

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