Losing

When expectations are high for your latest project, what hurts so much is not the loss if things don’t go as everyone imagined they would.

All things being equal in terms of preparation, practice, and getting to the meeting on time, what hurts the most when

• your side isn’t picked
• your contract isn’t chosen
• your team loses the Big Game

is what’s behind the loss.

It’s about the how, not the why.

Why did we lose? isn’t the right question to ask in the aftermath.

How did we lose? is.

Why is emotional, how is practical.

And in matters of getting better, practical trumps emotional.

When things don’t go well, let the tears fall, the rants echo down the tunnel, the fists shake at the sky.

But then, examine what happened mechanically so that next time you get to play, you work from gain rather than loss.

No matter what anyone says or believes ahead of time, if one side executes their plan more effectively, more efficiently, more expertly, it will win and yours won’t.

Wise losers will take the loss and use it as a way to get better.

Sore losers will spend a lot of time and energy pointing fingers, keeping everyone stuck and coming up against the same roadblocks again and again, guaranteeing very little chance of victory any time soon.