Why winning is everything

Several perennial contenders have thrown together makeshift gyms and invited each other to train. Snowboarders are a mutually supportive group, always eager to see the next big trick.

Granted, these sports lend themselves to camaraderie. Each athlete is competing against nature, an obstacle course, or perhaps gravity. That seems a curious thing to say about events that are more athletic than auto racing or bowling and more competitive than hunting and fishing, the staples of many local Sunday sports sections.

Consider mixed martial arts, which has a few blood feuds but many more cases of mutual respect. Fighters will give each other a bro hug or maybe even a real hug before and after the business of punching, kicking and mangling each other. If that aesthetic bothers you, you might consider switching to pro wrestling, which will churn out scripts of betrayal and leglocks until the sun swallows the earth. MMA had its coming-out party at the finale of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, where Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar expended non-stop violent energy for 15 minutes, then made it clear that they actually liked each other.

A win says that the game has been played the right way and that practice paid off. Winning motivates one to continue playing and continue winning.

Also, winning connects good feelings with the sport, which can give your young athlete the drive to keep going. Constant losing, on the other hand, might easily lead to early quitting.

No one wants to lose because no one wants to feel bad. And losing constantly has the potential to turn players off from a sport for good. However, it does build character. Dealing with a loss is one of the most important life lessons anyone can learn.

Losing also provides drive and purpose. Losing forces young athletes to evaluate themselves. A loss forces young athletes to look in the mirror far more than a win. Does winning feel better than losing? Of course it does! Is losing the end of the world? All the mental and physical preparation is aimed at achieving one simple objective: Beating your opponent by scoring more points, runs, goals, etc.

People in the corporate world certainly speak in those terms with unfailing regularity, and they apply sports and even martial metaphors to their missions. But do these methods accomplish what they should in the sphere of business — that is, motivating the workforce for the sake of organizational success? Obviously, the meaning of winning will vary from company to company.

What does that mean, really? Getting more of its market share? Taking its high-potential employees?