There have been all too frequent examples of poor decisions in the name of “winning”. As we wrap up this election season, the examples are numerous of candidates more worried about winning an election than standing by their principles. Sometimes it’s a sports team cutting corners to achieve a competitive edge or a business misstating results to appease shareholders. While most of these are worthy of condemnation in their own right, the other problem is that it’s unlikely to work in the long run. The shortcuts almost always get exposed – often with disastrous results and wiping away whatever temporary gains were made.
As an extension of the same theory, we need to consider what winning really means. Insulting someone in an argument until they give up and walk away doesn’t work. It might feel good in the moment, but is unlikely to have achieved the ultimate goal of changing their mind. If hurling insults was persuasive, we would have achieved world peace a long time ago.
Real winning is rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work. Winning is doing the repetitions during practice or taking the extra time to fix a customer’s problem even when it delays the next sale. Winning isn’t just the “what” – the “how” and the “why” are equally important.
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