Three people ran a marathon besides hundreds
of others. The medal was won by a fourth person. But does that mean that these
three people were losers? Not at all. They all went into the race with
different objectives. The first one went in to test his endurance and he did
and came out better than his expectations. The second wanted to improve on his
previous performance, and he did. The third person had never run a marathon in
his life. His objective
was to complete the race and reach the finish line and he did. What does that
tell us? All three with different objectives met them and they were all
winners, regardless of who won the medal.
As Mark Twain said, it is better to
deserve an honor and not have it than to have it and not deserve it. Because
dignity is not in possessing but deserving.
If winning is the only objective, a
person may miss out on the internal rewards that come with winning. More
important than winning is winning with honor and deserving to have won. It is
better to lose honorably than to succeed with dishonesty. Losing honorably may
signify lack of preparation but dishonest winning signifies lack of character.
The real test of a person's character is what he would or would not do if he
knew he would never be found out. It is not worth compromising one's integrity
and taking shortcuts to win. You may win a trophy but knowing the truth you can
never be a happy person. More important than winning a trophy is being a good
human being.
Winners
live and work every day as if it were the last day. Because one of these days
it is going to be the last and we don't know which one it is going to be. When
they leave, they leave as winners.
There are some defeats more triumphant than
victories.
--Michael de Montaigne
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