"Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing"
Coach "Red" Sanders
1950
Winning. Many books have been written on this subject. It is talked about most every week in some sort of a locker room. We have learned how to win, how to win with grace, how to act with class should you not win, and how to keep this all in perspective. We even have a famous former baseball player in a TV commercial telling us the best part of winning is "rubbing it in".
However, winning is real life is much different than sports. In sports, if you come out on the losing end of a contest, life will go on. There is usually another contest next week, or worst case, next season. In war, not winning is life changing, sometimes life ending.
Companies that win in the arena of ideas do well. Losing means a loss of market share, loss of market cap, or sometimes even a loss of the enterprise. To win is to prosper - to lose is to hopefully survive until the next chance to compete.
Politics however, is another example of the power of winning. I think we could all take a lesson from the Democrats on winning. They know how to win. They believe NOTHING is more important than winning. Many times it is winning at any cost. The Republicans on the the other hand, do not. We saw it in the last election. Many did not like Mitt, did not like his campaign, did not like he was a Mormon, and so on. The result - 3 million fewer Republicans voted in 2012 than in 2008. Barrack Obama was re-elected by a margin narrower than the 3 million votes. Despite Obama's multitude of faults and failures during his first term, his base wanted to win. The Republicans not so much.
In Minnesota this past gubernatorial election, we elected Mark Dayton. Here is a man with an empty resume and numerous flaws. Never worked in the private sector, trust fund baby, and when serving as one of our senators, Time magazine voted him one of the five worst senators of all time! There was no way on God's green earth this man should have beat a highly qualified man like Tom Emmer. But he did. Why? As flawed as Dayton was, his side wanted to win more than the Republicans did. The Democrats went for the juggler. They brought up an ancient DUI that Emmer had. The Republicans played it clean on Dayton's background, even though it was littered with problems. Result today - we have a Democratic governor, House and Senate and the tax proposals and health care exchanges are just starting to come down the pipe.
On final word on the last two presidential elections. In 2008, the Democrats ran someone who was a blank sheet of paper. No resume, no vetting. As much as I admire John McCain, many of Obama's flaws, including his middle name ,McCain put off limits during the campaign. While McCain ran a tepid campaign, many times Obama's team went for McCain's juggler. In 2012, with the stench of Benghazi still hanging heavy in the air, Mitt refused to bring it up in the later debates. Obama's team worked Mitt over with a tire iron - Mitt's team wanted to take the higher road. Result of the 2008 and 2012 campaigns - two terms of a president who should have never even made it though the primary system.
Maybe as we go forward into the next election cycle, the Republicans need to remember the immortal words of Coach Red Sanders - "Winning is not everything, it is the only thing".
Amen to that coach.
Companies that win in the arena of ideas do well. Losing means a loss of market share, loss of market cap, or sometimes even a loss of the enterprise. To win is to prosper - to lose is to hopefully survive until the next chance to compete.
Politics however, is another example of the power of winning. I think we could all take a lesson from the Democrats on winning. They know how to win. They believe NOTHING is more important than winning. Many times it is winning at any cost. The Republicans on the the other hand, do not. We saw it in the last election. Many did not like Mitt, did not like his campaign, did not like he was a Mormon, and so on. The result - 3 million fewer Republicans voted in 2012 than in 2008. Barrack Obama was re-elected by a margin narrower than the 3 million votes. Despite Obama's multitude of faults and failures during his first term, his base wanted to win. The Republicans not so much.
In Minnesota this past gubernatorial election, we elected Mark Dayton. Here is a man with an empty resume and numerous flaws. Never worked in the private sector, trust fund baby, and when serving as one of our senators, Time magazine voted him one of the five worst senators of all time! There was no way on God's green earth this man should have beat a highly qualified man like Tom Emmer. But he did. Why? As flawed as Dayton was, his side wanted to win more than the Republicans did. The Democrats went for the juggler. They brought up an ancient DUI that Emmer had. The Republicans played it clean on Dayton's background, even though it was littered with problems. Result today - we have a Democratic governor, House and Senate and the tax proposals and health care exchanges are just starting to come down the pipe.
On final word on the last two presidential elections. In 2008, the Democrats ran someone who was a blank sheet of paper. No resume, no vetting. As much as I admire John McCain, many of Obama's flaws, including his middle name ,McCain put off limits during the campaign. While McCain ran a tepid campaign, many times Obama's team went for McCain's juggler. In 2012, with the stench of Benghazi still hanging heavy in the air, Mitt refused to bring it up in the later debates. Obama's team worked Mitt over with a tire iron - Mitt's team wanted to take the higher road. Result of the 2008 and 2012 campaigns - two terms of a president who should have never even made it though the primary system.
Maybe as we go forward into the next election cycle, the Republicans need to remember the immortal words of Coach Red Sanders - "Winning is not everything, it is the only thing".
Amen to that coach.
No comments:
Post a Comment