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Against All Odds:
So What?
Columbus, whose astonishing accomplishment we Americans are celebrating today, was a loooooooooong shot—and he brought home a winner. My dearly beloved Stanford, a woeful example of a Division 1A football team, went to Southern California as a 42-point underdog to the #1 ranked Trojans—and brought home a winner, snapping SC's 35-game home winning streak in the process. North Carolina's Appalachian State, otherwise known as "who they," went to Ann Arbor at the start of the season to face #5 Michigan—and brought home a winner.
British explorer-madman Jason Lewis pedaled up the Thames and across the Meridian Line at Greenwich on Saturday, thus completing a 13-year, 46,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe using only his own power—bicycle, 26-foot pedal boat, kayak, and inline skates.
At a Saturday evening party on the Farm, leaves at VT peak, I gave a friend fighting a severe illness one of my newly acquired Appalachian State T-shirts. I told him I called it my FTO T-shirt. (F^&* The Odds.)
Long shots are long shots—but they do come in. To my mind, the essence of life is trying stuff you "have no right to try." Consider this Wilde-ism (Oscar): "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."
Amen!
Happy Columbus Day!
(Canadian pals: Happy Thanksgiving.)
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Comments
Tom
Thanks for this simple yet profound message. My best to your friend fighting the illness.
Posted by Brad Hersack at October 8, 2007 12:57 PM
I saw another against-all-odds story today in the Boston Globe, a 13-year-old with only one leg climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/articles/2007/10/08/kilimanjaro_one_of_teens_many_heights/
And, by the way, thank you to the Globe for making their archives free back to 2003. Free access to information! Yay!
Posted by cathy mosca at October 8, 2007 1:08 PM
Love the 'FTO' T-shirt - you really must copyright that :-)
Praying for your friend - regards from over the pond.
Posted by Trevor Gay at October 8, 2007 1:21 PM
Happy Columbus Day! I always question those like Wilde who try to come up with a clever saying if I may.
In other words he is vain enough to put himself in the class of those "living" - while we "common ones" are just existing - so he is quite the "exalted one" - thanks but no thanks.
Even as late as the 20th Century the media "elites" wrote current events & history to force feed the masses. Now 100's of millions Internet harness media to write their own stories & heritage - the Wilde's are dead in multiple ways
Posted by John at October 8, 2007 1:37 PM
Archimedes was a long shot. He was taking a bath and accidentally discovered the Eureka principle. Here's a twist on his well-known quote: "Give me a shot long enough to limit my opportunities, and I shall do stuff that will be remembered for ages".
Isaac Newton was a long shot too. He was taking a lazy afternoon nap under an apple tree then lo and behold! An apple comes falling down the tree and gravity was born!
Conclusion: Long shots are ordinary people doing ordinary things yet maintaining an eye for the extra-ordinary! Thanks for the inspiration!
Posted by Herman Najoli at October 8, 2007 5:46 PM
As a Spartan from MSU as an undergrad, the first thing I did after the Appalachian State UM game was to order tee shirts. Maybe they beat the odds, but then again, maybe the arrogance of thinking you will always be the elite led to UM's downfall (seems like they ought to be talking to the big three 40 miles north of them)
Posted by Mike Neiss at October 8, 2007 6:44 PM
"the chances were a million to one but, as any good wizard knows, million to one chances turn up nine times out of ten"
Terry Pratchett
Posted by Russell Manley at October 9, 2007 2:15 AM
And in the Rugby World Cup this past weekend, England (who were expected to lose heavily) beat 2nd favourites Australia; France beat the runaway favourites New Zealand; and Argentina beat Scotland to progress to the semi-final for the first time ever.
Argentina's rise to become a world rugby power is an amazing, inspirational, against the odds story. I'm not usually keen sports analogies in the business world but for a combination of talent, hard work, determination, astute coaching and building a great team, it takes some beating.
It'll also be interesting to see how they manage the transitions as older players retire and new ones need to be brought through. Built to last or built to shine and die?
Posted by Mark JF at October 9, 2007 3:19 AM
It's always worth taking those longshots. But, the opportunities under your nose just waiting to be grabbed can catch you out if you don't notice them. I heard Ranulph Fiennes, the English explorer, say that he spent twenty-six years trying to find a lost city under the desert. He didn't spend all twenty-six years in the desert: he just kept returning every few years to try and find it. It was eventually found by chance, under the base camp that he had been using for the previous twenty-six years to launch expeditions to find it...
Posted by Phil Dourado at October 9, 2007 7:38 AM
Impossible is Nothing - isn't that what they say?
One of my favorite Against All Odds stories hits home. My Polish heritage was maintained by the perseverance of the Polish people and society to save their culture from the Germans during WWII. Despite the German insistence on the destruction of the culture, it still thrived underground.
I'd agree with Phil that opportunities are just waiting to be grabbed. We have to remember that there is no "i" in team, but there are four "i"'s in INITIATIVE. :)
Posted by Piotr Jakubowski at October 9, 2007 8:18 AM
Let me add a contrarian view to these one-off successes: so what? I don't know the exact standings of each of the teams you've mentioned here but I'm assuming they're not exactly top of the league. Now, an against-the-odds victory is a great one-off and the fans can celebrate. But if it's only a one-off, is it anything other than a consolation on the road to mediocrity?
Posted by Mark JF at October 9, 2007 10:58 AM
Mark-
One off victories are the same as movies that, by some chance, become blockbusters. The victory is sweet while it lasts.
Whether its a consolation on the road to mediocrity, I don't know. You could say the same about the Greek National Football team in the Euro 2004 championship. Against odds of hundreds to 1, they won the entire tournament. SInce then, they haven't done too well, but it just proves to the others that seemingly invincible teams are just the opposite.
I think it's important just because of this reason, if anything. Proof that nothing is impossible, and that the team(s) involved are capable to improve in order to compete with the big boys in the future.
Posted by Piotr Jakubowski at October 9, 2007 11:16 AM
"But if it's only a one-off, is it anything other than a consolation on the road to mediocrity?"--Mark JF
Wow! Everyone--everyone!--in the history books is a "one off." Period. (By definition.)
Posted by tom peters at October 9, 2007 2:21 PM
Ernest Shackleton - described as 'the greatest leader that ever came on God's earth bar none' - for saving the lives of the 27 men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost 2 years - a real long shot. Among Shackleton’s armoury of skills were humour, optimism, compassion and egalitarianism – how many of these words appear on the average Business School prospectus for the MBA. Shackleton was truly a dealer in ‘hope.’
And finally MarkJF … Come on ENGLAND!!
Posted by Trevor Gay at October 9, 2007 5:50 PM
If women are so important to you TP, how come this site drips in testosterone?
And how come so few women post to the site?
Posted by alice Cooper at October 9, 2007 8:15 PM