Tales of underdogs that won and lost

Malcolm Gladwell, author of bestsellers The Tipping Point, Outliers, and What the Dog Saw, this year offered a typically provocative take on what it really means to be the underdog.

In his latest, David & Goliath, Gladwell challenges the common perception of obstacles using the battlefield in ancient Palestine as his template, where a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior using only a slingshot.

History tells us this was an improbable victory — a perception Gladwell challenges in a book that is as much about business as it is about the business of life. Goliath was the real underdog, a slow and clumsy adversary for the agile, quick-witted David, who used the terrain to his ultimate advantage.