Victory is Finite

In order for you to win, someone else has to lose. You can and should be as polite, civilized, and even kind as possible to those around you. But at the end of the day, the things we all want are finite resources. You and the other candidate can't both have that job. There's only one first place for the race. Only one team can win.

In most cases where something we want is at stake, there is only one winning side. It might be us alone, or it might be a team, but in the end, someone else has to lose in order for us to achieve victory. We can and should be gracious in victory as well as defeat, but we must always remember that the other side wants to win too.

The moment you start to take anything for granted is when the other person, the other team, gets ahead. While you're taking it easy, the other side is wanting it more than you. They're staying up later to practice more. They're spending more of their free time training, honing their skills more than you. They're working harder than you, because they want it more than you.

And that's really the crux of it: Whoever wants it more is the one that is going to win that finite victory. You need to be stronger than the other person, the other team, the "other." And that's where the work comes in.

You have to constantly keep the awareness of the other, the opponent, in your mind. And it's rarely just one, on top of it. When you interview for a job, you are against an entire industry of people that want it. When you start your own business, you are against legions of competitors. When you date, you are competing with everyone else in society who wants an attractive, interesting, compatible partner. 

Countless other people want everything that you want, and you are going to have to be better than them if you expect to have it. Remember this every time you get tired. Remember it every time time you are sore. Remember it every time you feel that you've "done enough" that day. Because somewhere, someone that wants exactly what you want isn't stopping when you do. Victory is finite, and it goes to the one who wants it most.

Share your stories down below. Tell us about a time when you forced yourself to put in that extra work, when you made sure it was the other that lost instead of you.