The Importance of Losing

Vince Lombardi, the hugely successful and iconic coach of the Green Bay Packers (a US NFL football team) in the 1960s, is obviously not as well know around the world as he is in the US. Yet the quote attributed to him is. "Winning isn't everything. It's the Only Thing". What is less known about Vince Lombardi is how much he disliked that quote being attributed to him. The implication of that quote suggests that "winning" is more important than anything else. Actually Vince, like any great coach or teacher, ascribed a lot of importance to winning but that was only second to the attitude of his team and the effort people were willing to put in. He once said "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence". That's a quote he is more comfortable with. And so am I. 

Make no mistake. Winning is important. To quote Vince again "If winning wasn't important, why would they keep score ?" However with each passing year, winning truly seems to have become more important than anything else. Whether it is sport, business, science & technology or reality TV shows. Winning is all that seems to matter to us as a society. It has resulted in some of the most amazing peaks of human endeavour as well as some of the depths of depravity. In 1988, we rejoiced when Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter, beat the world 100 m record to win the Olympic Gold medal, ahead of American favourite Carl Lewis. Just two days later, we were horrified to learn that the final "kick" to his performance was artificially provided by a banned steroid. He was banned for three years and returned in 1991. He did well but was not able to achieve the heights he did from his steroid-laced performances. However in 1993 he ran a 50 mt race in a near world record time. Just as the world stood up to salute his resurrection, it was found that he had been caught for "doping" again. This time he was banned for life. What interests me about this story is not Ben Johnson's use of steroids in the first place. It is his use after a ban that shows the how important winning was. Win using any means - fair our foul.

In sport there are clear deterrents to unfair conduct. Time and again sportspeople breach that conduct. Many are caught and this serves as a deterrent of sorts. However in "real" life what are the deterrents to an individual or a corporate wanting to "win" at all costs. Not much really. In most cases a corporate will almost applaud an employee who shows the "initiative" to work outside the rulebook. Playing fair is actually considered "naive". What is the result - a wide spectrum of human frailty - from backstabbing a co-worker for personal gain to bribing a government official so that one's organisation gets special privileges and hence scores above the competition. Scientific and corporate espionage and theft are booming industries in a world of recession and negative growth. I don't consider those who win "at all costs" as winners. However they play the venomous role of infecting society.

If one stays within the confines of "winning fair" and within the rules we come up against that fundamental question - do we strive for excellence or to win? While they are not mutually exclusive, it is clear sustainable progress for society comes from seeking excellence. It is hear that the core premise of my blogpost finally kicks in - the greatest attribute to winning is very simple - losing. Any winner will tell you that what they learned from winning is nothing compared to what they learned from losing. Richard Bach, in the Bridge Across Forever says "That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before. Losing, in a curious way, is winning".

Indeed it is. Losing is the best way to understand what it takes to win and causes us to examine our performance closely as we strive to improve. However what if one has lost not because of one's inability or opponent's talent - but rather because of the "at any cost" approach. What then? Here is really where a person's character is tested. Is it better to compromise one's ideals and win or to continue along the path to excellence - hard as it might be. Of course the obvious answer is to do the right thing - but life is not as simple as that. Often the issues are murky and not black and white. Maybe the cost of losing is more than just the impact on the ego. A family's livelihood could hang in the balance. Who are we then to pontificate on right and wrong? About losing with honour being better than winning unfair. Many of the outstanding books on the subject talk about the process rather than the result. Stephen Covey talks about the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" (not successful people). Even great thinkers like Kahlil Gibran, who picked up most human emotions in "The Prophet" stayed away from writing about winning and losing. Those who do write about winning are consigned to be paperback tigers who pick on a small wave of a "how to" craze that ebbs as quickly as it flowed. They can never hope to explain the ocean.

What do I think? Winning and Losing are both impermanent states. They will not remain. The only permanence is one's own being and what one stands for. Rudyard Kipling said it eloquently "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same..".  I feel it is foolhardy to do something unethical for an impermanent state of "winning". Similarly it is equally foolish to overreact to a loss by overcompensating or changing one's moral dimension. Much better to find ways to better one's effectiveness and strive for excellence. After all winning and losing are two sides of the same coin. When we marvel at the shine of one side we are just being ignorant in not noticing the dull and darkened other side. Perhaps one should not aspire for the shining side of the coin but to polish the dull side so that the coin always falls on a shiny side. Or perhaps one should seek only to be an observer of the fall of the coin and not to react or hope for either result. Easier said than done? Of course. Worth striving for - ab"soul"utely.