I hate losing more than I love winning.
Plenty of coaches use that line in sports. For me, it’s life. Losing doesn’t fly. Failure doesn’t fly. Mediocrity does not fly.
A few weeks ago, I found a new perspective on losing. Losing isn’t always just losing.
Stuart Scott, an ESPN analyst, passed away over the holiday break. On a day the Lions lost a playoff game to “The Dallas Cowboys,” (Looking at you, Dean Blandino) it was easy to overlook the things in life that truly mattered. It was easy to be blinded by the rage of losing.
Stuart Scott was one of the things that truly mattered. By all accounts, he was a genuinely good Samaritan.
Scott battled cancer three times. A lot of times when that battle or any battle with extended illness ends in death, people will say, “This person lost their battle to cancer after….” But Scott was different.
“When you die, that does not mean you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live,” Scott said at the ESPY’s.
Stuart Scott lost his life, not his battle. For the first time in life I’m realizing that losing can be subjective. The only thing I ever used to learn from losing is that I hated it. Most of the time I knew what I did wrong that led me to defeat.
We’re all going to die. But in some respect, we’re not all going to lose.
“Winning,” has a number of connotations. Charlie Sheen’s version of “Winning,” may not be THE formula. It’s different for everyone.
You may not have known about Stuart Scott, but his speech is riveting, honest and heartfelt. Like Jim Valvano, Stuart Scott’s ESPN speech was moving beyond the norms of an award acceptance speech. It’s worth the trip to Youtube.
School can be discouraging at times, but Scott’s lessons are directly applicable to it.
When it gets tough, and it undoubtedly will this semester, you don’t “Lose,” in the classroom when you fail. You win by how you work, why you work, and the manner in which you work.