“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” ― Michael Jordan
For Chicago baseball fans, 2013 has been the summer of discontent. And in a remarkable showing of balanced ineffectiveness, the numbers are nearly identical on the North and South sides of the great city.
The Cubs are in last place in the National League Central Division. They have a record of 55 wins and 76 losses, 22 games out of first place.
The SOX are in last place in the American League Central Division. They have a record of 54 wins and 76 losses, 22.5 games out of first place.
If you aren’t a baseball fan, let me assure you that both records are atrocious; it is hard to believe that two teams with such awful results could reside in the same city. (Yes, I have personal feelings about this.)
Perhaps after the Chicago Blackhawks won this year’s Stanley Cup (that’s hockey, friends), the baseball records are a natural balancing of winning and losing. After all, one city can’t win everything.
This brings me to something that has been meandering about my mind for some time: the importance of losing while doing one’s best.
I know, this sounds like something coaches tell kids who play on awful sports teams. But it has broader implications in life.
Sixteen teams participated in the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs. Were the 15 that didn’t win the cup must a bunch of losers? No, but the last game they played this year, they lost; they left the tournament on a loss.
Sixty-four teams started this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. All but one lost their last game.
Large companies have thousands of employees, each of whom (including the chairman of the board) will reach a point where there is no more promotion, that you are a “loser” because the other guy got the corner office.
The conclave to elect our new Pope included 115 Cardinals. Are the ones who didn’t become Pope just a flock of losers? No…I don’t think so.
And I don’t think anyone – in sports, business or any other walk of life – is a loser as long as he is doing his best and doing it faithfully. That means playing by the rules of the game in sports – and by God’s rules in life. (See 10 commandments for further explanation.)
The winner is nothing without the losers who made his victory possible. No, I don’t mean by being there to lose, but by being there so challenge the winner to do better. To be teachers, coaches, examples who teach the winner each day to push further, sometimes losing in the short term but being better in the long run. To be part of losing and therein make winning possible. To tempt the winner to take the dishonest, hurtful approach – and reject it.
“God does not require that we be successful only that we be faithful.” — Mother Teresa
“Being faithful leads to ultimate success.” Fair’s corollary
