NFL coaching legend Vince Lombardi's immortal quote "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing" doesn't define what winning is. What are you talking about when you use the words win or winning or winner? It mainly depends on what your point of view is. Where does the meaning lie for you? If you have those answers and a plan even when you lose, you score a win.
Changing the face of a game
I began with a football analogy so I will use a football related incident to draw upon. In the 1980's a springtime football league blew in and fell out. The league, the USFL, left it's mark behind. (For more information on the USFL read, Donald Trump: From Rosie to The Apprentice to Miss USA) The upstart football league left behind a legacy of changes, coaches and players that reformed the face of the NFL. The USFL essentially made pro football a better game for the player and the fan.
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When is a loss a win? The answer is all in the aftermath. When the losing side creates positive change is one response. Another is when the loser walks away with everything and the winner has gained nothing. In sports we see this all the time. A supposedly weaker team rises to the challenge of a dominant team only to lose by a fluke or a bad call. You look at the players after the contest. The winners have shallow smiles and display forced pride. Sometimes when you hear them speak, it sounds like they are making up excuses for the win. With the losing team you can feel they are applying restraint in order not to celebrate. Yet you can see they know what their team accomplished that day. They were better for the loss because they answered the questions within themselves. As for the the winners, they find themselves asking those same questions about themselves. Not every win comes with pride.
The upcoming 2008 political battlefield
This pending presidential election has the potential to turn America on it's ear. We have the first bonafide woman candidate for President in the modern era. There is an irony in Hillary Clinton running for president. There was a time during her husband's presidency (you remember Bill Clinton of the Lewinsky cigar fame) when the joke was Hillary was running the country. Now she not only has her chance, she can fan that old sentiment for votes.
Senator Barack Obama will bring his contributions to the campaign. As an Afro-American who truly is not only in position to challenge, but establish a change in our culture. While I don't feel he has yet developed the backing to win (that may change) he has the power to institute tremendous change in the political face of the country. In the last elections, John Edwards drew enough votes to damage the outcome between Bush and Kerry. Consider that Barack Obama is the fifth black senator elected in history and the only black senator presently, the situation will give him face time to gain popularity. I believe the Senator has the prospective to play the Edwards role this upcoming election. I would not be surprised at a final ticket possibility of Obama as the vice presidential running mate. The Senator's main image drawback is his father is a true Kenyan African while his mother was a white American. Obama has yet to fully cross that bridge of acceptance to our country's native-born Afro-American population.
He gained in defeat
This last presidential election served as the first coming of John Edwards. The media played upon his Kennedyesque charisma. Edwards final popular vote tallied much higher than anyone predicted. This time he can build on those results to grow his voting support base. If Edwards wins his party's nod, he will have the opportunity of a historical choice to make. John Edwards's running mate could be Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. A win with either one as Vic President has the probability to set up the country's political landscape for over the next decade and a half. The exception may be if he does decide to play it safe and choose someone from the old guard. JFK used this rationale to select Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate. Win or lose at whatever stage John Edwards will be a political force for years to come, if he chooses. With this election, he will continue build upon his power base though a well positioned campaign.
Choices are an equal opportunity factor in life
We have all heard this one, "it's not whether you win or lose, it how you play the game." If you play the game with an attitude that you can and will take away something no matter the outcome, you can never lose. You have the choice is to accept the outcome as a finality or an opportunity. I can write this from the heart because I know what it is to have everything taken from you. Some would call that a loss. They are right, but the loss wasn't mine. My ability to walk away create and seize my opportunities made it my gain.
Sometimes when you work hard and do your best, you still can't grasp the prize. Vince Lombardi had a saying for when this takes place in life. The quote came after a game his team had turned the momentum around and gained control of the contest but lost anyway. The man of football legend paid homage to his teams efforts by claiming, "We didn't lose the game, we just ran out of time."
