People talk a lot about success, but what is it really?
Success:
1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors; the accomplishment of one’s goals.
2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like.
3. a performance or achievement that is marked by success, as by the attainment of honors:
4. a person or thing that has had success, as measured by attainment of goals, wealth, etc.
So, success is based on a positive result of something done. It suggests an ending or a culmination of actions that reap the reward desired by doing actions.
Win:
16. a victory, as in a game or race.
17. the position of the competitor who comes in first.
18. Slang. a success, or something good: the state or quality of being successful or good
To win is success, but is a comparison to a position held by others.
So, really, the difference between success and winning is that success is based on a independent value and winning is based on value as compared with others.
Winning means to defeat someone else in a comparison. So winning is a result of contests.
Success means to get a positive desired result simply based on the goals of actions taken.
Winning is a higher form of success because in order to win at something you have to be better than everyone else doing something. In the world of personal achievement success is a more attainable goal, because you set your own standards for what constitutes a successful result. It is about setting a goal that is attainable and then going about attaining it.
Winning is about being the best there is compared to all others. So to win, you not only have to be as good as you can be, but you have to be better than all others.
The antonym of success is failure. The antonym of win is to lose. So in winning you gain something and with losing something is taken away from you that you thought or did in fact have. Failure is not getting the desired result from a set of actions based on a goal.
With winning and losing, the stakes are higher. With success and failure you are simply evaluating results compared to what you wanted to do.
The mantra of success actually leads to failure because a successful person will shift their ability to succeed by lowering the standards for success. While the mantra of winning is a desperate battle to the end to achieve at a level above all others.
When you look at something like basketball coaches you always hear two words used. They are either a successful coach or a winning coach. The winning coaches are the highest paid and most sought after, while successful coaches become journeymen, going from job to job achieving above average results.
So, when I hear the word success I get a little put off, because it is sort of an ambiguous term. Winning on the other hand is a clear cut definition of where you stand in the world.
Winning requires a lot more effort. Success requires you to set goals that are just a little higher than you are already achieving.
But, there is one very important difference. Someone who is in it to win, will always be a success, but someone who wants to succeed will almost never win. The energy created by striving to be number one is much more powerful than the energy needed to succeed.
In our world of being nice, fair and equitable, there is a huge tendency to want to let everyone ”win.” But really, the law of survival of the fittest still exists. The only way to guarantee survival is to be the best because being average is in fact a losers mentality.
Winners will succeed, but successful people lose in the end because they are playing the game for the sake of the game, and not to win and frankly, that has no energy at all.
I address this because I have not been competitive in my life. I was taught that it was more important how you played the game than if you won it or not. I’m not saying it is right to win at the expense of others or doing something unlawful or immoral is justifiable. I am saying that playing the game just to play the game and not to win is like giving up before you get started and does not require your best effort, therefore you don’t give it and the result is you are cheating the world from being all you can be.
So, lets stop talking about success and start talking about winning. Don’t just be the best you can be, be the best on earth. That will get you a lot farther than the success mentality.
Winning is an intrinsic part of the American mentality. This is often criticized as being too dog eat dog. Winning in America means a lot and losing is respected as long as you play to win, and not simply to compete. I think watering down winning is a disservice to everyone.
I used to have the mentality that the arts aren’t about winning and losing, but more of a question of success. I wouldn’t do competitions because of it. When I did do a competition, I didn’t go to win, I went to simply participate. Sure, it makes not winning less painful, but it also lowers your level of commitment, and this is sensed by adjudicators.
So, I am going to turn my sights on winning because success is a lot less fun than winning.
There is no replacement for winning.
”Winning is not everything, it is the only thing.” Red Sanders
”Winning is not everything, but the will to win is.” Vince Lombardi
Play to win…it is a lot more fun!