David and Goliath as a Success Formula - a Talisman of Luck and Skill and Providence
Posted: Wednesday, November 09, 2011
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
A Talisman is something that helps initiate into the Mysteries. One of the greatest mysteries that mankind confronts is “making something happen”. That sounds so simple and yet it is the greatest mystery. We are all perplexed at times as to why something failed, and then correspondingly, we are amazed when something marvelous is constructed and actually happens.
The more we talk about Talismans and Mysteries and Good Luck and High Achievement, the more the “Success Formula” seems to be elusive and far from us. And yet, it is going on all the time in varying degrees of manifestation. And experts are talking and writing, and new companies schedule seminars and classes. This conjuring up of dreams that can manifest as all that we consider “MODERN” all of those things came about because of people going by their own plans, ideals, resources, and making their “good fortune” happen.
David and Goliath
There are some who doubt this even really happened. I won’t argue with them. This tale is special in that the tale itself represents so much. Its historicity is not the issue. It does make a marvelous success story however.
Goliath was an outsize warrior who was so big that he really stood out amongst an entire army. The Philistines used him as Intimidation Force Number One. He was a quick way to make the opposing army tremble and defeat the opposition before the fighting started. Day after day he menaced the Israelites with his might voice and challenged them to produce a warrior who could fight him.
David was the runt of his father Jesse’s litter. He was sent up with a bunch of cheeses to all the older brothers. That was fortuitous because that gave him a reason to be on the battlefield. Once he got on the battlefield, his natural self took over. His dialogue was already written for him. It just came forth from his heart.
Below is a bit of the event:
33Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”
34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
The “success” of this event, once people look at it, all makes sense. The stone, it turns out was a perfect way to kill Goliath. Everyone envisioned a hand to hand battle. David had a special plan and he executed it. He made his own rules, felt the urging of his own heart, and did not need to summon up faith, it oozed from him. He was attracted to the benefits being offered, and unlike the mass of soldiers around him, he did not see the defeating of Goliath as an unattainable outcome. In his mind, it was going to be a technically simple effort.
Let’s analyze it according to a Success Template and see how it happened.
1 – Intention / Plan
Every advisor will tell you about having a “Business Plan”, or a well conceived idea that you think is doable. I would say that as an individual, you should analyze the “purity” of your plan. Or, better said, “Don’t fool yourself about the why of your plan.” Analyze your “want to”. In the case of David, his intention came from his outrage: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” It was the Purity of his Inner Intent that distinguished him from everyone else. And, this may be the most important part of this article. IT IS THE QUALITY OF THE HEART OF THE “WANT TO”. I do not mean that this has to have a religious overtone, but it should have a “passion”.
2 - Character / Inner Person
David was not sent from Central Casting. They tried to dress him up as a warrior so that he could die with a nice uniform. He threw that stuff off and flew into battle almost naked. Why? Because David was who he was. He was completely AUTHENTIC. What we can learn from this is that your character will manifest. Perhaps, even as a mystery to you, who you are will come out in your efforts to make success happen. But that’s OK. We are alive to be tried through our efforts so that the dross can be burnt off and we can become silver. Do not become timid. If we are going to be tried, then great - we will be tried.
3 - Skill / Maximum Performance
You can’t fake your real skill. You can lie to yourself, or others, you can make up a resume, or say you have done this or that. But you can’t fake the Oboe. Whatever your real skills are at a given moment will be what the “test” becomes. David had used his sling shot umpteen thousand times. David could hit a hundred empty pots from a hundred paces over and over and over again. He had faced literal danger in those contexts, scores of times.
4 - Relationships – Good Will of Others
David was not a snot. He was a younger brother, doing his duties, being a friend to his brothers, respectful of his surroundings, and represented his faith naturally to all of those around him. His relationship skills were so strong that his relatives, and the King concluded that they would let the boy do what he wished. He was not a flake. He had the respect of others. Often times undetected ill will has a way of sinking or challenging our efforts. Enemies have a way of doing their worst when the moment is the most important. Analyze this factor if your effort is going to involve a group of people.
5 - Luck / Good Fortune – Propitious Timing
This is the ghostly, angelic, touch of fairy dust that humans always think about when they are trying to make something happen. It is a mystery indeed, and I do not have an answer for this quandary, only to say that somehow Propitious Timing or Good Fortune ARE A COMBINATION OF ALL SEVEN STEPS. But here is another point: Just how much luck was really involved? In the story, David seems lucky. All of the soldiers in both armies viewed and said: “What luck!” But was it really lucky? Analyze the basics of the story: A young, skilled teenager who was an expert in the sling, and who had killed wild animals with his bare hands went up against a too big, too inflexible, giant, who was pretty slow to move, took a stone into his cranium. He probably could have done that 100 times without missing once. I am not denying the existence of “good luck”; I am simply saying that often good luck requires analysis. Maybe there are times when good luck is simply an outcome of efforts and events with connections that are unseen.
6 – Synergistic Combination
Once the stone is sitting in Goliath’s head, and David is cutting off his head, a reporter would say: “OK, this is what happened first, and second, and third, and fourth , and then, this and that and this and that.” Synergism is a great modern word because it represents our modern understanding of how forces help each other out. Elements weave in and weave out of happenings which make the total outcome of those elements a great and new happening.
“The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that contributed independently by the parts, is created primarily by the relationship among the parts, that is, how they are interconnected. In essence, a system constitutes a set of interrelated components working together with a common objective: fulfilling some designated need.” All of the interconnected parts of that being we call David came together on that day and fulfilled a designated need. This was a SYNERGISTIC EVENT!
When it comes to our efforts, we should understand that all of the components of our efforts WILL have a synergistic effect of varying quality. We should assume this, and appreciate that how we put all of our efforts together, if they are harmonic and value related, they will produce a synergy.
7 - Providence – Beneficent Outcome
Providence is a word that says: “Something got in back of this effort and gave it a beneficence, an outstanding quality that everyone agrees is special. When Providence is at work, you have a feeling that something got in back of this.
When David dragged Goliath’s head, he was not worried about how many Philistines would jump him. He was victorious. It was magical. No one was going to touch him because God was obviously on his side! We have had times, most of us, when we felt that Providence was present, so much, that our effort was undefeatable. It was happening. It was real. Nothing was going to deny this. And then we lean back, and we say: “How does Providence work?”
Who Was David?
If you think, “Well that was David, King David, the Immortal Guy who did a hundred other things.” I would say to you, and really this is what the message is all about.
Who was David? A shepherd who was slick with a sling shot and who was fearless. When it comes to a Success you are trying to pull off, a plan you are trying to execute, a thing you are trying to make happen the last thing you should say is: “Who do I think I am…I am only me”. Don’t say that. If you can go through these SEVEN STEPS, may be you are ready. Maybe little old you is just like little old David.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Well done... as usual..Thanks very much for writing this comment and taking time to make me feel good.
Christofer this is absolutely brilliant! I love the David and Goliath story, it inspires me and gives me courage. I can't believe anybody would get hung up on whether it's historical fact or not - that's so not the important thing!
But I also love your analysis, it's so true. And often so funny - "David was not sent from Central Casting"! You make me laugh, but there's a lot of wisdom in that.
This is an article I'll keep coming back to, thanks a million.Thanks so much for your positive vote.
Christofer! Great Job, i love this, especially because it was a topic i suggested haha :), Loved the ending, the story, and how you combined luck and skill in a single element! Long time no see!I absolutely loved putting in an article this ancient story that really is completely relevant for modern applications. It really worked. Thanks much.
Wow, I was just bouncing around during my lunch and happened upon this article of yours! What a wonderful ability of showing the power that is there for anyone if we have the coinfidence and ability to accept that it is there! NIce work!Thanks much. Classical lore and ancient tales are actually loaded with the current, the important, the meaningful, the poetic. I appreciate deeply your appreciation.
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