And the Winner Is…

I don’t know yet.

I’m writing this the morning of the Super Bowl.

But even if I knew who won the game I still believe it’s too early to tell who the real winner is.

Sure you can call yourself a Super Bowl champion for the rest of your life but the bigger questions are: What will you champion during your life? What will you do with the influence you have? What difference will you make?

I believe the purpose of sports is to develop us into better human beings. After all, when the game is over and the lights are no longer shining on us, winners will make a far greater difference off the field than they do on the field.

Does that mean we shouldn’t compete or strive to be our best? Of course not. The goal of sports is to make us better human beings. Playing sports taught me to work hard, overcome adversity, rejection and my own self doubts and fears to keep striving towards my dreams. I believe playing sports prepared me to do the work I do now.

After The Energy Bus was rejected by 30+ publishers I didn’t give up because in sports I had experienced failure and rejection numerous times. I had learned years ago not to let someone else’s opinion of me, define me.

The media makes it seem like the game is everything. They act as if winning or losing will be all that defines you. But I have found that real winners don’t let themselves be defined by whether they won or lost. Real winners learn from their losses and become better people in the process.

Where I live we recently hosted two of the greatest lacrosse players on the planet. Rob Pannell and Max Siebald were both winners of the Tewaaraton Trophy (Lacrosse’s version of the Heisman). Both will represent Team USA this year in the World Games. Both played at Cornell. Both play for the NY Lizards, a professional lacrosse team. Yet, when they spoke to the young players at their lacrosse clinic both Max and Rob shared how they were better people because of the losses they experienced on ESPN. Max talked about losing to Syracuse in the 2009 National Championship after leading by a goal with 13 seconds left. Rob shared how he would have given up his Tewaarton trophy for a shot to play in a national championship after losing to Duke in the final four this year. Both failed to win a national championship and they shared how losing these big games made them more humble, passionate and committed players and coaches now.

I saw Max and Rob’s humility and commitment on display as they worked with the young lacrosse players in our area. They weren’t just big names who showed up to say, “Here I am, who wants an autograph?” They were humble, caring leaders who were really focused on helping the kids improve and all the parents and kids were blown away. (By the way if you have lacrosse in your area I highly recommend you bring them in. www.maximumlacrossecamps.com)

I dare anyone to call these guys losers because they didn’t win a national championship. They have become even bigger winners in life who are developing a new generation of winners.

So the real winner to me is not the winner of a game but the one who transforms their win or loss into an opportunity to make a greater positive difference.