There is something about the British, its in our blood, it is deeply ingrained in our history, a passion that we all can relate to………….
We just love an underdog.
Sport generally throws up the most underdog stories, but I have also included one that I think shows just what Britain is all about. Here are my top 3 of the greatest underdog stories of all time im sure like me you smile with joy.
Here are some notable ones
Wimbledon win the FA cup in 1988 against the mighty machine that was Liverpool
On the 14th of May 1988, in a time when the FA cup final was the pinnacle of British football the aptly named 'crazy gang' of Wimbledon, who's team included two ex Sheffield United players Vinnie Jones & Alan Cork, one nut job turned actor and the other is best known in the Sheffield area for being the oldest looking man to score a goal at Wembley, beat the perennial trophy hoovers Liverpool which included super stars like Alan Hanson, John Barnes & John Aldridge on a gloriously sunny day at Wembley stadium in front of 98 thousand fans.
Buster Douglas 10th round KO of the un-beaten Mike Tyson in Tokyo in 1990
Unless you were an avid box fan before fighting Mike Tyson, you probably had no idea who James "Buster" Douglas was. To be honest I bet most of you still have no idea who Douglas is, despite his knocking out heavyweight champion Tyson in 1990.
Mike Tyson was one of my favourite boxers, a real street fighter, an animal a true warrior, yes I know he wasn’t the nicest person outside the ring and had his demons but as a boxing fan I thought 'Iron Mike was sheer class in the ring. Tyson came into the fight undefeated, and was also a 42-1 favourite to win. The fight was by far one of the biggest upsets in sports history, but was also one of the biggest underdog performances ever.
In the 10th round an unstoppable barrage of punches that Tyson could do nothing about came from Douglas and knocked Tyson to the canvas, struggling to get up the ref stopped the fight to the joy of the underdog.
Susan Boyle makes the Britain's Got Talent judges eat humble pie with outstanding vocal performance
Now I'm not really one for Simon Cowells talent shows but this one really does hit the spot when it comes to the underdog story. In 2009 on the 3rd series of BGT a nervous grey haired woman took the stage amid sniggers from the crowd, Cowell rolling his eyes and Piers Morgan with that smug face which only a mother could love.
Susan began to sing……… with gasps from the crowd, Ant & Dec in amazement she simply wowed the audience with a fantastic rendition of I Dreamed a dream from the west end hit Les Misérables. Simon Cowells snarls turned to smiles as he thought about the money rolling in from this innocent woman who suffers from autism.
Susan you are a true underdog and I salute you.
Why is this relevant to a blog for a technology business I hear you cry !!
Well our industry is full of 'global' players and 'big revenue' companies who operate like monsters, try to hoover up all the talent, have the vendors on puppet strings with the promise of huge revenues.
Well everyone loves an underdog and that’s just what Simoda are.
We are happy to go against the big wigs and have proved that agility, passion, dedication & modern thinking are a match for mega revenues.
Over the next few blogs I will be talking about our underdog story and highlighting some of the fantastic work we are doing and have done against the odds.
Keep your eyes peeled to read about our underdog stories.
Daniel
A proud MD of a fantastic company