The Blessing of Being the Underdog
Lessons on hidden growth, leadership, and becoming from a lifelong underdog.
For years, I thought I had a gift for seeing potential before everyone else did. I always found myself rooting for underdogs.
Back in 2007/2008, I became a Manchester City fan because I saw a team that felt overlooked but full of promise. Around 2013/2014, I found myself becoming a Golden State Warriors fan for similar reasons. Both felt like teams with potential that many people overlooked—and eventually both transformed into dominant forces.
For a long time, I thought I was simply good at choosing winners early.
Then I realized something:
I was not choosing teams.
I was choosing reflections of myself.
Because if I am honest, I have often felt like the underdog throughout my own life.
The person overlooked.
The person people call when they need help, but not always the person they think of when opportunities appear.
The one carrying more than people realize while standing quietly in the background.
There were seasons where I felt good enough to carry responsibility, but not visible enough to be trusted with opportunity.
Maybe some of you know that feeling too.
You watch others move ahead and quietly wonder if people see something in them that they somehow missed in you.
You begin asking questions:
Am I behind?
When will my turn come?
Do people even see me?
Over time, I have started realizing there is a blessing hidden in being the underdog.
Underdogs grow differently.
When there are no expectations, there is room to develop quietly. When nobody is watching, there is room to build foundations. While people are focused on what is visible, something is still being built where no one is looking.
Roots are growing.
Character is forming.
Skills are developing.
Humility is being cultivated.
Then one day people look at your life and say:
“Wow… where did you come from?”
But they missed the process.
You did not come out of nowhere.
You were there all along.
You were growing while nobody was watching.
Looking back, I am learning to appreciate seasons where I felt invisible.
Not because I enjoyed them.
I did not.
But because they formed parts of me that comfort and recognition never could.
They taught me patience.
They taught me resilience.
They taught me how to keep showing up without applause.
They also taught me that leadership is not first learned in the spotlight. It is often learned in hidden places.
Those seasons taught me something else too.
I also realized that I tend to build teams by looking for underdogs.
When I look at teams, communities, organizations, and people, I often find myself drawn toward those who may not immediately stand out to everyone else. The people whose potential has not yet been fully seen. The people who are capable but overlooked. The people still finding their voice, confidence, or opportunity.
Maybe that is because I see pieces of myself in them.
Looking back, many of the people I have been most excited to invest in were not always the obvious choices.
I have learned that some of the most remarkable people are not always the loudest voices in the room or the most visible names on paper. Sometimes they are simply waiting for someone to believe in them before they fully believe in themselves.
And these seasons taught me something I never want to lose:
Do not lose your humanness in the process.
Do not let disappointment steal your humility.
Do not let delayed opportunities harden your heart.
Because one danger of finally being seen is carrying bitterness from the journey that got you there.
You can carry old wounds into new opportunities.
You can spend so much energy proving people wrong that you forget who you were becoming all along.
I am learning that the underdog story was never really about proving people wrong.
It was about becoming the person God and life were shaping in quiet places.
Life does not always happen at the pace we expect.
Quiet seasons are not empty seasons.
Maybe what the world calls an underdog is simply someone being prepared before being revealed.
One day people may say you came out of nowhere.
But you will know the truth.
You were there all along.
You were never behind.
You were becoming.