I am blessed enough to have children who enthusiastically participate in sports. I am also a sports lover as a spectator and dabble in social sports such as golf, running, cycling and tennis from time to time. Sometimes as a sports fan you are on a high when your team is doing really well or has just won a major competition. As a matter of fact, when I watch my children play any sport I sincerely want them to win. Yes, participation and trying your best are important but I never want them to step into the arena without the possibility of a victory.
Sometimes my favourite team is just outplayed, because they are up against outstanding opposition. I can appreciate real talent even when they are playing against my team. I sincerely wish these talented players all the best as I truly believe people should maximise not minimise their talents. However, there are those days when I can’t help but feel that my team should have won. I will be extremely frustrated that they did not. Is this source of frustration that I am sore loser and don’t have the emotional maturity to accept that it is not possible to win all the time? I don’t think so! I think the frustration stems from the fact that the potential to win was there and we did something within our control that contributed to defeat.
There are numerous examples but as a rugby fan when my team makes too many unforced errors such as knocking the ball on within metres of the try line that drives me mad. Especially, if they end up losing by a narrow margin. Or using a football example when a player (usually Nunez or Salah) blasts the ball inexplicably over the bar or the side of the goal. This makes me want to fly to the north of England and have a personal word with both of them. In both these examples the loss has nothing to do with the quality of the opposition, it is down to a player with an opportunity being reckless and squandering it.
Following this thread I work in a very competitive consumer goods environment. Our brands are market leaders in many cases, however, the product categories are fiercely contested. Sometimes a competitor simply executes in a better way than we do and we lick our wounds, go back to the drawing board and attempt to come back with an adequate response. Sometimes, however, I feel absolute frustration because the competitor is winning due to something really basic we did not do. An example of this being where a competitor launches a new product, but our product is not available in the store that the competitor has launched in. Purely because someone forgot to check that it was.
So yes, I love to win. I want to win and go out everyday believing that I can. I like to believe I can win. And it is my belief that by minimising errors the percentage of wins will outweigh the losses. Food for thought for competitive tennis players…the number one predictor of success is that the best players in the world make less unforced errors. It is not that they hit better shots, or smash more winners. They just stuff it up less often. What are you doing today that is firmly in your control that is holding you back from winning?
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