Against all odds

Paul Potts, a car phone salesman from South Wales, has won “Britain’s Got Talent” and the whole world seems to be raving about him. It’s the classic underdog story, an unassuming, slightly overweight, middle aged man with self esteem and confidence issues comes to audition for a famous show, expectations are at a low, and then he sings and floors the audience, hands down. He became the buzz of the competition and the world rooted for the underdog.

Paul Potts is not the first one; there have been hundreds of them before. Right from day to day little league matches to world wide competitions, we have seen absolute nobodies take the field by storm, and create history, and we have seen ourselves rooting for the one who has all the odds stacked against him.

Underdog syndrome as its called is so rampant that it even extends to works of fiction. We can’t stop cheering when Cinderella, the legendary heroine of fairy tales, ends up becoming a princess after a lifetime of servitude, when Rocky Balboa loses the match but lasts the fifteen rounds or even when Harry Potter goes from an ordinary boy being mistreated in his aunt’s house to a hero in the wizard world.

So what is it about the underdog that makes us root for them? Is it because we, in some odd twisted way hate those on top? Those who have made it to the top have in all likelihood used their own talent, effort and hard work to reach there. Perhaps it is not hatred or dislike for those who are already the best in their field but the hope, the faith that the underdog represents, the hope that with hard work and perseverance, it is possible, to beat the odds.

In many ways the underdog’s victory is a slice of success much more within reach.