When you study great coaches, leaders, and achievers in any field, you discover that one of the things they hate the most is actually the “secret” to their success.
No one likes to talk about this painful secret, but it’s something anyone who wants to achieve greatness must accept. Five-time National Champion football coach and current president of Youngstown State University, Jim Tressel, explains…
I have learned more from losing than I’ve ever learned from winning. As a head coach, an assistant coach, and a player, I learned more from the defeats than the victories. When you compare the value of the two, it’s not even close. The takeaway value of a loss is so much greater.
The same has been true for every team I’ve ever coached. We have learned more over the years from losing than from winning. And the knowledge we have gained from those losses has helped us win more games.
That may sound strange, but every coach and player reading this knows exactly what I’m talking about.
On the journey of success, we begin with plans, goals, and dreams. Once we have those figured out, we get to work. In the process, we invariably face hardship and struggle, as well as triumph and achievement. But whether we face success or adversity, we can learn how to not just “handle” it but to take advantage of it.
If we want to succeed in life, we must learn how to make the most of both victory and defeat—because we’re certain to encounter both along the way.
— Jim Tressel, from his book The Winners Manual
No one likes to lose. Whether we’re talking about a game, a big sale, an important client, a dream job—whatever it may be—we hate losing. Yet, every gameday across America, half the teams will win and half the teams will lose. It’s how you respond to that result that makes the difference in your future.
Nobody gets through life undefeated. Nobody rises to the top of their field without encountering many losses along the way. It’s what you do with those losses that determines your future.
The key difference between rising to the top and failing to reach your goal is how you take advantage of the losses you will face.
No one likes to hear this, but every defeat truly is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to learn something you never could have learned from a victory. It’s an opportunity to make appropriate adjustments, to gain wisdom, to make yourself more resilient, and to make yourself work harder.
It’s the losses—and how you respond to those losses—that make you who you are.
Behind every great coach, leader, or achiever is a string of disappointing losses that they chose to take advantage of. They chose to use those losses to make them better instead of bitter. They chose to use those losses as motivation instead of using them as an excuse to quit.
It’s how you react to the losses you will invariably face that determines your destiny.
