My kid brought home a flier from school that included information on a young soccer league. The leaflet requested that parents and coaches instill particular characteristics in their daughters and sons. Among these characteristics were morality, the ability to share, patience, perseverance, and the ability to “lose.” There was little significance placed on winning, as stated in the flier. As an alternative, the flier advised that after each game or practice, the parents should take a moment to sit down and tell each kid how well they performed. The comment that truly blows my head is the one that says, “Winning is not important!” The mission of this organization was to instill in children the notion of “learning to lose” and to entirely exclude the idea of winning from their lives. No, that is not possible. Indeed, winning is important. This is really important! If you take winning out of the equation, you won’t be able to acquire any of the wonderful attributes that the league highlighted. This is because winning is so vital. The fact that a team has a core aim of winning demonstrates that there is a destination. When there is a chance of victory, a team is compelled to improve their abilities and carry out their strategy. When a team is “going for the win,” it indicates that they have high standards; they are working for the greatest possible result and are interested in achieving greatness. Winning is important! It is impossible to educate someone to “learn to lose” if you act as if winning is not important. There is no such thing as a vacuum in which winners are not there; losing does not occur in that vacuum. The reason why one team is defeated is because the other team has the will to win. The phrase “it’s alright. there’s always next time” is not the appropriate response to take when you are learning to lose. The next time around, there will also be no victory. You are doomed to continue to lose if you do not take the time to find out where things went wrong, if you do not make an effort to improve yourself and repair your errors, then you will continually lose. There is no aim other than the possibility of continuing to be mediocre if you do not establish a goal and direct your attention toward a reward such as triumph that you have set for yourself. If individuals do not comprehend that acquiring those values is equivalent to achieving success in life, then none of those lofty goals that were outlined in the brochure will be accomplished by anybody. For instance, the attribute of perseverance may be reduced by subtracting the desire to take first place. Where is the motivation to go on with the plan if the accomplishment of anything is of no consequence? People are not going to put out any effort if they do not have a specific objective in mind. When there is nothing that can be accomplished, it is difficult to stir up any kind of drive. It was noted on the brochure that youngsters should be taught how to be effective leaders. An essential component of leadership is the possession of a vision. The route to triumph is the vision that you have. On the other hand, if the team is not permitted to contemplate a victory, the leader is left with the option of saying, “Proceed with this, but there is no genuine need to do so. That is not the goal that we have in mind.” I don’t see why someone would follow a leader like him. There was also a regulation in place within the league that stated that there would be no method of scorekeeping in any of the games, regardless of the age level of the players. Keeping score is a method of evaluating a team’s accomplishments and determining what they need to do in order to win. The scoreboard serves as a source of motivation for them to continue their pursuit of greatness. It is impossible to separate victory from any of the positive aspects. Winning is the cornerstone around which these characteristics are built. If there is not a solid foundation upon which to build, then all of the other excellent attributes will fall to pieces. In the end, the children’s abilities in the soccer league were not very good, and the learning curve was almost nonexistent. The skill of having low expectations and delivering mediocrity was being taught by this league via its practices. The worst part is that a lot of parents got into this terrible idea, which would simply teach their children to accept defeat without encouraging them to strive for improvement. It does not escape my attention that there are certain individuals that incorporate this faulty thinking into their enterprises and end up failing miserably. You should not be scared to rate your employees according to their performance. Give them a score. Describe to them where they are now located and what the end goal is going to be. Make a plan for them to follow in order to achieve their objectives. Evaluate their performance, point out any errors they made, address them, and provide them with the opportunity to improve. As a consequence, the overall performance of the squad will undergo an improvement. The ability to keep score, to be competitive, and to want to win are essential components of success in life, regardless of a person’s age or the kind of activity they are engaged in. The alternative is to lose, to be mediocre, or to not compete at all. Winning is not everything, but it is certainly preferable to the alternatives.