Finding Your Unfair Advantage

And where to find it will surprise you

I love sports. I watch the NBA, the NFL, college basketball and football. Beyond pure entertainment and a sense of belonging, there’s one more benefit to watching sports as an adult: you can find lots of useful life lessons. At the end of each game, the scoreboard shows one winner. At the end of every season, the league crowns one champion. Becoming the winner and champion is hard—extremely hard. It takes ambition, discipline, resilience, and a huge amount of luck.

If you watch enough men and women giving their all to win championships, year after year, sport after sport, you start seeing patterns and lessons—if you pay close enough attention. And some of those lessons can be borrowed and applied to everyday life.

Today, I’ll write about one lesson I learned from two different champions in college football and how you can use it to win your own sport of life - finding your unfair advantage from a hidden places - obstacles.

However, sports can teach you valuable life lessons

Michigan’s Journey

In the 2023-2024 college football season, one team entered as a favorite: the University of Michigan Wolverines, coached by Jim Harbaugh. The notoriously intense and quirky coach had spent four years at Stanford, four years with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL, and then eight years at the University of Michigan. He came close to a championship many times but couldn’t get over the hump. By year nine at Michigan, fans had long grown impatient. Maybe this was a guy who was good—even great—but not a championship coach. He didn’t have “it.” He might never win a championship.

And I bet, after 16 years of trying and failing, that doubt crept into Harbaugh’s mind too.

But something happened during the 2023-2024 season—Harbaugh was suspended by the league for three games at the beginning and three games in the middle of the season for rule violations. During those six games, he couldn’t talk to the players, the coaches, or anyone on the team. His players and assistant coaches were effectively cut off from their head coach.

Most teams would see this as a devastating blow to their already fragile championship chances. But not Harbaugh. He saw it as a huge opportunity—a moment his team could rally around to elevate their toughness, ability, and togetherness.

During his suspension, Michigan not only avoided losing—they became an even better team. After Harbaugh returned, they went on to finally win the national championship—the program’s first in 26 years and Harbaugh’s first ever.

Jim Harbaugh channelled his suspension into an “unfair advantage” to win the national championship

After the season, Harbaugh repeatedly mentioned that his suspension was an obstacle that gave his team an unfair advantage, one that pushed them over the top in an extremely competitive league.

Wait a minute. “Unfair” advantage? Most teams, when their coach gets suspended, would complain about unfair treatment. But for Harbaugh and Michigan, it was unfair to the rest of the league that this happened—not to Michigan. It was an “unfair advantage” because they decided to see it and use it that way.

Ohio State’s Redemption

In the following year, the 2024-2025 season, Michigan’s archrival nemesis—the Ohio State Buckeyes—entered the year as one of the favorites. But just like Jim Harbaugh, Ohio State’s coach Ryan Day was also on the hot seat.

In the previous three years, Day’s team had lost each of their annual games against Harbaugh’s Michigan team, failing to advance to the playoffs as a result. To make matters worse, as previously mentioned, Michigan had finally won the national championship last year, earning endless bragging rights.

It’s one thing to lose, but to lose to your hated rival and then watch them win it all? Ohio State fans were humiliated and furious. They took it out on their coach, passionately calling for Ryan Day’s firing.

Then came this year’s game. Ohio State inexplicably lost again to Michigan—this time at home to a rebuilding Michigan team without Harbaugh, who had left for the NFL following last year. When the game ended, and the coaches met at midfield to shake hands, chants of “F— Ryan Day” rang out from 100,000 furious Ohio State fans - fans of his own team.

Despite the loss, thanks to an impressive record and a new playoff structure, Ohio State managed to sneak into the playoffs. However, the three weeks following the loss were hell for the program. Every day, fans demanded Day’s firing. Every day, national media labeled the team as losers.

But something interesting happened. Just like Jim Harbaugh’s suspension became an “unfair advantage” for Michigan the previous year, this year’s loss to Michigan did the same for Ohio State. The failure and humiliation didn’t just anger the fans—it angered the team. Ryan Day was able to rally his players around that emotion, preparing them for the playoffs with extra precision and effort beyond they thought were possible.

When the playoffs began, Ohio State was a completely different team to the point of being unrecognizable. They unleashed their frustration on their opponents, becoming an unstoppable force. Eventually, they won the national championship in four games by an average of 17.5 points per game, a truly impressive feat.

After the championship run, Ryan Day credited those dark weeks after the Michigan loss as instrumental to their success.

Ryan Day used losing to Michigan as an “unfair advantage” to win their own national championship a year later

Using Obstacles as Unfair Advantages

In back-to-back years, two bitter rivals faced devastating setbacks during their seasons. And in back-to-back years, those setbacks became “unfair advantages” that fueled their championship runs. If sports can teach us anything, it’s this: obstacles can be turned into opportunities.

After spending, many hours watching sports, I’ve become fascinated by the concept of turning every obstacle into an “unfair advantage.” So much so that I’ve evolved into a different person.

Last week, I took my second writing trip—this time to Lake Tahoe, four hours from home. (Sadly, you can’t go to Japan every time.) Over three days at the lake, I refocused my energy on book writing.

On day two, something happened that I hadn’t experienced in over a decade: I got pulled over by the police. I was driving five miles over the speed limit, and the officer wasn’t happy. She gave me a $308 ticket and couldn’t stop lecturing me about my driving.

Since I don’t get pulled over often, I still remember the last time it happened—12 years ago in Houston. I remember the frustration, anger, and shame I felt during that encounter.

Only this time, I was shocked by how different I felt. I smiled, joked, and even complimented the officer—with complete sincerity. I had no anxiety or fear. More importantly, my mind immediately started thinking about how to turn this unpleasant experience into an advantage, if not an “unfair advantage.”

As I drove to my writing spot, I kept searching for the answer. But I came up empty. What kind of advantage could I find? I wasn’t going to improve my driving—I don’t think going five miles over the speed limit is particularly dangerous. And I wasn’t going to somehow positively impact the officer’s life—she seemed determined to lecture me regardless.

Then it hit me: I could use this experience to write a newsletter about turning obstacles into “unfair advantages.” And I could tie it to the football examples that had been swirling in my head for weeks.

At that moment, it dawned on me: Man, what a psycho I’ve become! I’m someone who’s no longer bothered by unpleasant experiences, instead focusing on how to turn them into advantages.

Who does that?

Well, you know who else does that? Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. Ryan Day at Ohio State. National champions.

And it’s not just in sports—it’s in business too. Howard Schultz used his poor upbringing as an “unfair advantage” to create a uniquely welcoming work environment for employees from humble backgrounds. Daymond John used his lack of funding as an “unfair advantage,” building brilliant guerrilla marketing campaigns by getting musicians to wear FUBU in music videos and creating a unique brand.

And even for me, I was the guy who turned rejection into an “unfair advantage” and into a cause that have helped lots of people.

How can this be turned into an “unfair advantage?” Well, you are reading it

Conclusion

Every day, life throws things at you. Good and bad, fun and unpleasant. You make a sale or get a raise, or you get flipped off by an angry driver or pulled over by a lecturing cop. These are just circumstances—events that come and go. But how you perceive, rationalize, and internalize these circumstances is completely within your control.

You tell yourself stories—tales of triumph or failure, opportunities or misfortunes, inspiration or desperation, “unfair advantage” or unrecoverable devastation. These stories determine how you move forward and whether they lift you up or drag you down.

One thing is for sure: you’ll face plenty of rejections, failures, and obstacles. But if you adopt the mindset of looking for “unfair advantages” in every situation, you’ll become truly invincible.

Now tell me in the comments: What are your obstacles? And what’s your plan to turn them into “unfair advantages?”