If participating is more important than winning why don’t we….

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If participating is more important than winning why don’t we….

We have all heard that winning is not as important as participating speech and the chances are that the occasion was that you had lost at something. Nobody goes up to the Winner and says stuff like this, do they now?

Whoever said winning isn't everything probably lost

Quotes about winning and losing are perhaps considered to be a mark of wisdom or maturity in our skewedly constructed society or maybe we are by nature polite and don’t want to really rub it in to the loser. You know like not kicking a man when he is down!

Winning is important

As far as the winning is everything debate is concerned no one disagrees that winning is more preferable than losing and its only when you have lost that philosophical ramblings like “winning is not so important as participating” come into play.

Winning is not everything, it is the only thing

·         Winning makes you feel good

·         Winning increases your self-worth

·         Winning makes you appreciate the importance of hard work

·         It spurs you to greater effort

·         It motivates you

·         It tells you that  you are the best, no matter what

·         Winning turns into a habit

·         It tells you what it takes to be number one

·         Winners take all

·         To the victor the spoils

·         Winners get to write history

·         Winners control the narrative

·         Winning as a goal is worth all the struggles and pain you take to get there

·         Winners get to change the world

If we subsidize failure we will end up as a society of losers. Nature too rewards the victors and only the fittest survive in the battle of evolution. Also-rans and has-beens are relegated to extinction.

Losing is not an option

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Let’s face it, failure hurts. It’s not a good thing. Nobody likes to have that feeling if they can help it. The takeaway from losing is that yes, maybe you tried your best but it was not good enough to win.

I found an amusing anecdote about an exchange between 2 ex-presidents of America who had both lost re-election. One asked the other about when the pain of losing an election stops hurting anymore. The other quipped, “When it does I’ll let you know”

Platitudes such as winning is not as important as participating should be taken akin to the consolations we utter at funerals to bereaved family members of the deceased. There is no need to glorify losing

 

Failure is not a person

Some people make the case that failure is in fact victory in disguise and it holds important lessons of life. That maybe but there many winners out there who have never learnt the hard lessons that defeat purports to teach and they just keep on winning.

It is precisely because losing is such a big deal that it acts as a negative motivation to not fail and to win at any cost. Failure is not an option

However we may not always win and when we find ourselves gulping on the bitter dregs of defeat it would help to remember on such occasions that I have failed today but I am not a failure!

Failure is not a person, it is an event

Competitiveness is in our DNA

Sports, debates and quizzes are just some of the competitions that offer runners-up and consolation prizes to losers.

In real life the only meal a loser gets to eat is humble pie!

And in wars there are no prizes for the second place. No one remembers who the second person to step on the moon was. Real life is a jungle and coming first matters more than anything. We cannot afford the luxury of believing that winning isn’t everything and teaching our children the same. We need to inculcate a competitive spirit in our children. Read Amy Chua’s book “The battle hymn of the Tiger Mom” in this regard

And the consolation prize for losing goes to….

If participation is more important than winning why don’t we  felicitate the following individuals, organizations and nations down the ages for their active participation in wars, conflicts and other activities irrespective of ideology or morality

So what if they lost!!!

1.   Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany
2.   Jefferson Davis and Robert Lee of the Confederacy
3.   Darius III of Persia
4. Mussolini “ El Duce”
5. Pakistan ( As the loser of 1965, 1971 and Kargil Wars)
6.  Usama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda
7. The erstwhile USSR (Loser ofthe Cold War)
8. Thomas Dewey defeats Trueman
9.  Charles Ponzi (Ponzi Schemes)
10.  Enron
11. White Star Lines and “The Titanic” (Sank on its maiden voyage)

We appreciate your participation and thank you for the same. While we rue the fact that you could not win we wish you all the very best for the future and  Better Luck next time!!!