Be An Underdog. Use Your Adversity To Achieve Success.

I love hearing about underdogs.  I feel success can be appreciated more once a person has actually worked tooth and nail to get what they have.  What I hate (hate is a strong word but befitting to how I feel), is when people use their circumstances as an excuse to hold themselves back.  I personally feel, that any hardships can be turned around and used as a strength.  Your life is not going to be perfect ( read my blog here and here), but what you do with it will make all the difference.

I will start with myself.  I am a black single mother who grew up without a father.  I, was born to a black single mother, and she was only 19 years old.

I could use my life to get down myself and go into a mood of entitlement feeling like the world owes me something or I can seek to achieve better.  Now lets take the same above story and re-write it.

My name is Sophia.  I am a black and a single mother of one.  My son goes to private school and I am a home owner.  I have a Master’s degree and am in my final year of my PhD.  I was born to a mother who had me at 19.  She joined the military.  While in the military my mother got both her Bachelors and Master’s degree.  Since retiring from the military she works in the Federal government.  She too is a home owner, and has earn several other degrees for fun (culinary and wedding planning).

Do you see how that story changes from playing the victim to taking a hold of life and living it to the fullest?  Never think under any circumstances that achievement is easy.  But if you want to be something, then you have to do something.


One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is David.  And it is not because he defeated Goliath or wrote most of Psalms, it is because he was an underdog.  He believed in himself through the power of God that he could do anything.

If you have not read the story of David I encourage you to. The portion I will speak about is when Solomon came to Jesse (David’s father) and asked all his son’s to come before him so that he can anoint one of them as king.

As Solomon when down the line, he saw that God had not anointed any of them to be King.  In confusion, Solomon asked Jesse did he have anymore sons? In which Jesse responded that he had David who was out in the field tending sheep.
Lets take that for a moment.  Jesse did not even consider his son, David,  as a candidate for being King.  He did not even think enough of him to call him in when Solomon specifically requested all of his sons to be present.  What does that tell you?  David was discounted by even his own family.



But little did they know, the lessons that David learned while being out in the field, tending the sheep, was where he learned to wrestle lions and bears.  He learned to have faith that God would see him through difficult situations.  What he learned is what  gave him an unshakable faith to take down Goliath with a stone.
Do not let the fact that people underestimate you be your defeat.  Do not allow whatever situations you are in bring you down.  It may be these same hardships and circumstances in life where you learn the most, even though it may not seem like it. I am sure David did now know that learning to protect sheep would teach him how to protect Israel.

So again I say to you.  I really love an underdog.  They have incredible strength because they know how to fight their way to the top.  Be an underdog, allow life situations to propel you forward, do not allow life to be you your defeat.  Allow it to be your testimonial.