Joe T.
Kick it!
Is winning everything?
Of course winning is everything.
As Nuke LaRouche once said: “I love winning, you know what I mean? Like it’s better than losing!”
Winning is better than losing. When you win press coverage is all the larger, praise all the greater, rewards are all the better, and everyone seems to love you all the more.
Winning works on so many different levels.
First, foremost, winning puts you on top. It gives you scoreboard baby. It gives you bragging rights, chest thumping rights, and privileges at the candy store losers don’t get.
Second winning justifies your actions. It earns nods of approval from those who study the methods you used to earn the big “W”.
Third winning lets you put your head down at night with confidence, with the knowledge that you have achieved. When you win you’re not a Buffalo Bill, a Minnesota Viking, or (for now) LeBron James. When you win you’re covered, the monkey is off your back, and if you fall short all the other days of your life you can always point to the one day in January, June, or December when it all came together for you.
Fourth winning distinguishes. Separates you from the crowd. How many champions do we know? How many players off our Little League teams win a CIF title? How many from our CIF title teams go on to win a World Series ring?
Winning works…winning is good for the economy…winning isn’t everything, winning truly is the only thing.
So we’ve talked about what winning does and brings…but perhaps we should touch on what winning is.
What is winning?
At one time I thought I knew…then again at one time I thought I knew more than anybody else about everything. I’m sure none of you ever suffered this affliction between the ages of say 16 to 21…What I thought was winning then, I’ve come to discover really isn’t winning.
Someone else is going to win tomorrow, next week, next month, next season, next year…There will always be a new winner…and a new one after that.
You see I won when I got married…When I started my family and worked to keep my family together and supported…I won when my daughter took the long walk in gold and green Friday night.
I won at the key moments of my life when I said not my will but thy will.
In the very last scene of the movie “The Great Race” the lead character after driving all the way around the world pulls up and stops just a few feet short of the finish line to prove to the woman with him that he loves her. As they kiss someone else crosses the finish line.
After the kiss the woman looks forward and says: “You lost.”
The man looks at her and says; “Only the race.”
Go out and win, fight hard to win…but fight hardest to win the things that can never be replaced…The things that can never be taken away…That can be eternal.
The Dude abides…
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Hebrews 10:39
Contact Joe at joe@midvalleysports.com
Follow him on Twitter at @joet13b
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