25 Things I Know to be True Now that I am 25

Day Nineteen: You Don’t Deserve a Trophy

I like competition. I do. I may not be good at most things but I still like competing in them. Partially because a contest can make the dullest of events more fun but the more important reason is that competition is what drives us to do and be better.

If everyone could be a winner, no one would try. Everyone would get exactly what they way wanted and that thing would become worthless. Victories would be hollow.

The satisfaction of success is greater with each challenge overcame and each foe defeated. Without obstacles or rivals, successfully doing something feels like nothing. If you’re reading this on a computer, and I imagine you are, scroll to the bottom of this page and then scroll back up. Was that hard? Does it feel like you did anything? Do you feel satisfied? You get the point.

Of course, I cannot talk about this without bring up the epidemic of all players getting a trophy. To be frank, I am disgusted. The winner will feel less accomplished but it is the losers who really being dis-serviced. The ability to lose with grace is one of the most important skills someone can learn. It’s bound to happen in adulthood and no one wants to see a grown-up throw a temper tantrum over a failure. Telling someone he is just as good as everyone else when he clearly is not almost guarantees that he will grow up to be a shit head.

Telling people that they are losers on the other hand can inspire them to do great things. They can realize why they failed and perhaps even where their strengths lie. They can use that knowledge to better them self. Victors have no need for self-reflection so a loser with the mindset of a winner cannot grow. The point is you can turn failure into victory but only if you first acknowledge you lost.