My son played in his league’s flag football championship this past weekend. The ending played out like a Hollywood script.
The game was tied. The Cardinals had the ball with 19 seconds left — time for one more play. They had been running the ball the entire game, and so the Vikings’ defense was focused on stopping the run. But it wasn’t a run. It was a fake. The Cardinals passed the ball to their wide receiver who was wide open behind the Vikings’ defense. He raced towards the goal line, scoring a touchdown as the clock expired. The crowd went wild. It was an amazing, epic, memorable finale. Only one problem:
My son is on the Vikings.
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Behind every great win is a story of loss.
This got me thinking about losing and our instinctive fear of it. At an early age, we are taught to detest losing and, as a result, do whatever we can to avoid it. But that is the wrong approach because, if you’re really trying in business, you lose a lot. You lose deals. You lose customers. You lose employees.
But here’s the one thing you can never lose: hope.
Nothing is permanent. No win lasts forever, nor does any loss. There is always another game. As we all celebrate the holiday season and the coming of the new year let us all remember one of the greatest gifts we can receive is unwavering hope that no matter how many times we lose, our greatest wins are still ahead
