Post

The Winner Takes It All

Second place or last place, there is no difference in losing...

The Winner Takes It All

Introduction

To start off today’s post, let’s take a look at quotes by some of the most accomplished winners in history.

Movie Poster
Muhammad Ali
(1942 - 2016)
American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "the Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time.
Boxing Career: 1960 - 1981

"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."

Michael Jordan Poster
Michael Jordan
(1963 - )
American professional basketball player and businessman. He was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon. His profile on the NBA website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."
NBA Career: 1984 - 2003

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six 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."

Alexander The Great
Alexander the Great
(356 BC - 323 BC)
King of Macedon and one of history's greatest military leaders. Alexander created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into India. Known for his undefeated record in battle and his ambition to conquer the known world. </p>

He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered to be history's greatest and most successful military commander.

Marie Curie
Marie Curie
(1867 - 1934)
A physicist and chemist who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences (Physics and Chemistry). She pioneered research on radioactivity and made groundbreaking discoveries that transformed science and medicine.

“We must keep our certainty that after the bad days the good times will come again”

What is winning?

What does it even mean to win? I believe that this is entirely up to each and every individual. Not two people on this planet have the same views on what winning looks like in their life. Our lives have so many unique factors to account for, that it is entirely up to us to perceive how winning looks like.

For me personally, I see winning as two things:

  • Being happy
  • Doing my best to attempt to achieve my goals. Even if I fail to achieve them - I always want to give it my all. Some attempts will of course be awful, dumb and naive in hindsight, but in some aspects of life the only way to learn is to try and fail, some things simply can not be taught.

Am I a winner or a loser?

What differentiates a winner from a loser, in my opinion, is that the winner will do his best to make up for his wrongdoings, while the loser deflects blame, looks for excuses & avoids resolving the conflict. There are exceptions to this, if someone does you wrong I don’t believe you owe them any explanation or closure - it is up to you, if you want to give that to someone who did you wrong.

Sources

This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.