Edith Buller-Breer
“The opinions expressed by the Tabor College EML student bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Tabor College. Tabor College is also not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information in the post.”
I believe a David and Goliath situation existed for my grandpa, Anthony H. Unruh in 1932. Grandpa was living in Montana, which was very rugged country. Temperatures could plummet in winter to 40 below and the United States was experiencing the Great Depression.
My grandparents had five children and then misfortune struck, not just once, but three times. First my grandparents lost a baby. Three years later, grandmother died after giving birth to another baby, and then that baby also died.
When grandmother passed away, the oldest of the five children was thirteen. My mother was the fourth child, the only girl. She was seven. The youngest of the five was six years old.
Many people encouraged Grandpa to split the five children up and send them to different homes in the area or to South Dakota where they could live with relatives. In another similar situation in the area, the children were sent to an orphanage. Grandpa certainly faced “an outsize challenge and [was] forced to respond,” as Gladwell mentions in David and Goliath (5).
Although it would have made more sense for a very busy farmer to turn his children over to the care of others, Grandpa refused to heed peoples’ advice.
Of course, Grandpa had to work twice as hard as his neighbors because he not only had the farm work to do, he also had to be mother and father to his five children. It was like the full court press Gladwell talks about that’s “an exhausting strategy”, but Grandpa had the courage and determination to persevere (28).
Grandpa demonstrated his faith and the importance of family and what seemed like a tremendous disadvantage ended up to be an advantage. Years later, Grandpa saw his three oldest sons become missionaries, my mother became a pastor’s wife, and the youngest son ended up taking over the farm.
Goliath did not win the battle my grandpa fought in raising his motherless children nor did he win the battle with Michael Dell. Here’s a link that tells the story of how Dell competed with the other computer giants and won:
“The opinions expressed by the Tabor College EML student bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of Tabor College. Tabor College is also not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information in the post.”