We all want to win, do we not? It is the one thing that every player goes onto the field to achieve and it is definitely the one thing we know when we come off the field, if we have won or not – all of us know that except, in truth, many a young child who runs around chasing the ball and comes off the field excited and exhausted but not knowing (as well as not caring) whether he had won or lost.
As we get older, it would appear, we do learn in our wisdom and intellect what it means (as well as what it takes) to win. Strangely, therefore, Phil Knight, the founder of Nike sportswear, wrote towards the end of his book, after sharing how his company had gone through so much pressure, difficulty and hard work in order to achieve the ultimate success that it did, that “I still didn’t know exactly what winning meant, other than not losing”.
He did not know what winning meant - really? Interesting!
We know what winning means, surely, but we do not know what winning means - really! Is it not really rather obvious?
Winning means that we have beaten our opponent; winning means we have done better than our opponent. We have scored more points in that particular match, we have run faster in that particular race. It means nothing more and nothing less.
It does not mean we will win next time, so it is a temporary thing; even if we win again and again and again, we will lose sometime so what significance is the winning? There perhaps lies the lesson we need to teach.
Furthermore, we need to add that doing something better than someone else (in other words beating them and therefore winning) does not mean that we are better than that person.
It does not mean that we have more value or worth or importance than the other person. It does not mean that doors will suddenly open for us. Winning a sports match will not help us find a wife.
- School of sport : What winning means
Keep Reading
Winning may imply success, as we choose to see it, but often it does not equate to significance or relevance.
Of course, perhaps Knight’s confusion on what winning means has reference to what we term a pyrrhic victory where victory has been gained (the opposition has been beaten) but the cost of gaining such a victory makes the winning meaningless – as the wise man once said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?” The ‘win’ was worthless, hollow, empty, useless, meaningless.
In other areas we may have lost integrity, dignity or respect by the way we won or the way we responded to winning. What value or good is winning then?
We might well also wonder how Knight did not know what winning meant but did know that it meant not losing (which implies knowing what losing means), yet how can we know what losing means without knowing what winning means? He is no doubt referring to that feeling when we do know we have won but recognise that we have done it a wrong, inappropriate way.
Some say that winning means “living the life of your dreams, achieving your goals”. That may appear to be true but the emphasis there is on the word “your”; those may not be our dreams or goals so in that case we have not lost.
It is like entering a competition of one (while making up your own rules, best suited to yourself) and winning it. Oh, wow, well done!
The bottom line is this: our goal, in any situation, be it sport, relationships, work or whatever, should be ensuring there is a win-win resolution.
That does not mean we hand out prizes to everyone. No, if we do that, then that means that the person who won the race actually loses his true position. The others will win respect though by trying their hardest and responding in a gracious manner (while the ‘winner’ might lose respect of those around him by the way he conducted himself ungraciously and disrespectfully in the aftermath of the race). Is winning a medal or respect more important?
And neither schools nor parents ever really help their child to learn what it means to win.
If adults and even highly successful businessmen do not know what winning means then we must start now ensuring that our young people learn early what exactly winning means, where the result fits in in the greater scheme of things.
It means we have done better than someone else in a particular area at a particular time.
That is all. And the response to that should be this: “Big deal! So what?
