Two important things I got from the book: Bigger isn’t always better and being unconventional wins. Also, Canada won a war? (Who knew? Go Canada!) So, my sister has this mindset that I always thought was very true but I also thought lacked confidence, which didn’t make sense to me because she is one of the most confident people I know. She says, “Always start out with people underestimating you. You can only improve from there.” My sister LOVES when people do not expect a lot of her and she LOVES taking on new challenges. I can’t even tell you how many times she’s gone to live in countries where she doesn’t speak the language, or taken classes completely out of her field of study, or just put herself in situations where she would definitely be the least proficient. Recently she joined a computer hacking club. She was the only girl at the meetings and the guys there were certainly not very eager to teach her. She went in knowing very little but did not care at all when she was judged for it. Now she’s always telling me to change my password and make it stronger, telling me not to use the internet in cafes, and actually practicing hacking by looking through my history when I’m using public internet (with my permission ofcourse). Point is. She is AWESOME. She is underestimated, she is judged, and then SHE CONQUERS. She is about to go to Morocco to do a work exchange at a bakery. She does not know French, but she is a fast learner. She will be underestimated (especially being American) but will pick up the language quickly and they will realize she is the best baker ever because she already taught herself to bake in Italy! Like the basketball coach Vivek, she lives her life unconventionally. She full court presses the heck out of her whole life. That’s why I love Malcolm Gladwell. He turns being unconventional (not JUST being an underdog) into a preferred method of success. He even proves that making tons of money doesn’t mean you will be able to parent your children to the best of your abilities. He’s a genius. Bigger isn’t always better, in terms of his David and Goliath story, means skill and cunning can defeat size (ofcourse we all learned that) but bigger isn’t always better in terms of class size as well. Which I totally agree with (which is why I’m at a small school ofcourse). He also warns that too small is bad too (which I sometimes see play out in my class of six when students refuse to talk and then the level of discussion is lowered). Gladwell’s most genius thought ever though is his idea that students should be judged on class ranking instead of the institution they came from. It would lead kids to make better decisions about the schools they go to and would also result in students trying harder. It is a GRAND idea. If it hadn’t been drilled into my mind that working hard in school and getting good grades was an important part of life then judgment based on ranking would do the trick for sure. In this case the bigger school name isn’t always better.Point is: be underestimated, work hard, and dominate. Everyone loves the story of an underdog for a reason. We are all underdogs, all of the time in everything we do, whether we'd like to admit it or not. We’re especially underdogs now with the economy and the global competition. The reason I didn’t like my sister’s motto was because I thought it lacked confidence, but you can definitely be underestimated and be confident. That is other people’s inability to see your great potential, not your own.