Motivation Monday: What It Means to Be an Underdog

Let's talk about a word that gets thrown around a lot but rarely gets the respect it deserves.

Underdog.

Not a loser. Not a victim. Not someone to feel sorry for.

The underdog is the one who knows the chances are slim, the road is long, and the load is heavy. And does it anyway.

That is the whole definition. And if that sounds like you, this post is for you.

What an Underdog Actually Is

The underdog is the one not supposed to win. The one that is not easy to root for at first glance. The one that does not seem to have a chance on paper.

But here is what the underdog has that nobody else does.

They are not pretending. They are not lying about how hard it is or how much they have failed or how many times they have fallen. They know exactly what they are up against. And they choose to ask the universe for bigger challenges anyway.

That is not recklessness. That is one of the rarest and most powerful mindsets a human being can have.

A bad hand is not game over. It is just a bad hand.

The Different Between an Underdog and a Victim

I want to be careful here because I have nothing but compassion for people who have experienced genuine trauma and violence. That is a different conversation entirely and those people deserve nothing but empathy and support.

What I am talking about is a mindset. The difference between looking at the circumstances you have been handed and deciding that must be it, versus looking at those same circumstances and asking what else could be out there.

Being a victim in this sense means laying down and taking it. Deciding the hand you were dealt is the only hand you will ever play.

The underdog gets the same bad hand. And dares to play it anyway.

That is the line. Not the circumstances. The response to the circumstances.

What Travis Mills Taught Me About Never Quitting

I want to tell you about someone my mom mentioned to me that I have never been able to forget.

His name is Travis Mills. He is a retired United States Army Staff Sergeant who lost all four of his limbs during his third deployment in Afghanistan after accidentally stepping on an IED. He is one of only five servicemen from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to survive as a quadruple amputee.

He had every right to quit. I would not have blamed him for a single second. Most people would not have made it through what he went through, let alone come out the other side with the attitude he has.

He does not call himself wounded. He calls himself a recalibrated warrior.

Today he is a motivational speaker, an author, and the founder of a foundation for wounded veterans. His message is simple. Never give up.

That right there is what an underdog looks like in its purest form. Not someone who had it easy. Not someone who won the first time. Someone who had every reason to stay down and chose not to.

Why We Root for the Underdog

People connect with underdog stories because they see themselves in them.

Not in the one who wins the fight. In the one who gets back up. The regular person. The one who has had hard things happen to them. The one who has failed and fallen and kept going anyway.

Watching someone come from a difficult place and improve their circumstances gives us all hope that we can find that same fight in ourselves. It is not just entertainment. It is evidence. Proof that it is possible. Proof that the odds are not always the final word.

And here is something worth thinking about. The underdog who keeps getting knocked down and refuses to stay there is actually more inspiring than the one who wins cleanly. Because the one who does not understand the word quit, who genuinely refuses to let circumstances get the better of them, that person always ends up winning in some capacity.

If you keep trying there is no way you do not win somehow.

Building an Underdog Brand for Underdogs

Bait Dogs Apparel is named after the most overlooked and abused dogs in existence. In a very real way, this brand is an underdog itself.

I could have built something aimed at the Michael Jordans of the world. The ones who are already great, the clear winners. But how boring and unrealistic would that be? What would they need from me?

I care about people. I genuinely believe that every person is capable of extraordinary things if they are willing to believe in themselves and work for it. I want to talk to those people because I was one of them.

Hell, I still am.

I feel discouraged sometimes. Disheartened and scared. I worry that this could all fall apart. But I am still going. And I think everyone can be if they are just willing to try.

Those people inspire me to do what I do. And I hope I get the chance to inspire them right back.

You Are Not a Loser

If you are reading this and you do not feel like an underdog right now, you feel like a loser, like it is already over, like the fight has completely left you, I need to say something directly to you.

You are only a loser if you decide you are.

I mean that. The way you talk to yourself matters more than almost anything else in your life. If you walk around telling yourself you are a loser, that is going to sink into your blood. You cannot keep talking to yourself that way.

No one who tries is a loser. That is it. That is the whole rule. If you give it honest effort and give yourself credit for that effort, you are not a loser. You are a champion in the making.

I know it is hard. It is never going to be easy. But ask yourself this.

What is harder? Accepting a life you do not want, or working toward one you do?

You Owe It to Yourself

Here is the only thing I want you to take from this post.

You have a responsibility to yourself to try.

It does not matter if you do not think you can win. It does not matter if everyone around you is telling you to pack it in and quit. It does not matter if your parents, your teachers, your partner, or your boss told you that you would never amount to anything.

What do they know?

This comes down to one person's opinion and one person's opinion only.

And that person is you.

If you think you have got something, you owe it to yourself to find out. The underdog does not wait for permission. The underdog does not wait for the odds to improve or for someone to hand them a better hand.

The underdog just goes.

Be the underdog.

We are the underdogs. We don't stay down, we bite back.