As we approached the end of our baseball season our head coach reminded us that all of the boys would be receiving a participation trophy. Is this really a trophy? When everyone gets one it devalues the award.
I won several trophies in local martial arts tournaments. But I never made it past a regional event. I also never felt bad about that. In fact, it made me work harder. That’s what losing does, it makes you want to work harder so you can become better and get a W the next time.
Every successful person (regardless of the venue) will tell you about their failures as much as their accomplishments. Those failures drive the accomplishments.
When everybody gets one, you think to yourself, wow, I’m great! But what are you great at? Are you really great? Or, when the realization hits that you really aren’t “great”, does it make the fall greater?
We live in a social media, immediate feedback, awards ceremony driven world. Awards don’t make one great. Notoriety doesn’t either. These are ego driven constructs.
The major question(s) we need to ask ourselves is, can you be great without the accolades? Can you own yourself without someone else’s praise?
Stay tuned for different thoughts next week on the same subject matter….
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