Anytime someone talks about winning, you get the impression that there is a contest, a competition, or a conquest. However, the conquest could be real or imaginary. Sometimes people compete with themselves and think they are competing with someone else. Some people say ‘I am competitive’ when in actual sense they are just combative. It makes no sense to fight or appear to be fighting when nobody is fighting with you. Life is not about winning or losing? It is wisdom to understand that losing could be part of winning or a strategy to win big. Life is about give and take. Sometimes you need to lose a battle so you can win a war. If you must win every argument, something is definitely wrong with you. If you are right every time and must have the last word with every person, you need to examine yourself. If you feel inferior because someone has better idea or more compelling argument than you, then you need to be delivered from superiority or inferiority complex. You can disagree with a person without being disagreeable. In this kingdom, you cannot always be right. Wisdom is the principal thing and wisdom is profitable to direct. Direction is key to success. To drive, you need a teacher but to fly you need an instructor. With proper instruction and direction, speed counts and you will not crash-land. Else you waste time and resources second-guessing yourself. Life has lots of lessons to teach if we can pay attention to nature. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? That is winning at a loss. Why would you pass a test and fail an examination? Wouldn’t it have been better to fail the test and pass the exam? If you let the fact that you did well in the test get into your head so much that you forgot to prepare for the exam, you will explain to your parents what you did with your time in school. In making leadership decisions, you look at the short term and the long-term effects of your actions and inactions. In our line of business, we are conscious of audits so that informs what we can or cannot do, it does not matter the immediate gain. You cannot pay us enough to risk our source of livelihood. Why would you make $50 today and risk $500 tomorrow? Why would you risk a career for a job? Is it not better to go hungry than to eat the food of unrighteousness? Why would you consider a few days of pleasure and risk a lifetime of regrets and displeasure? There is a way that seems right unto a man but ends in dishonor. What does it profit a man? Life is a trade-off. You are not a failure because you failed a thing, but because you quit trying. You are not a loser because you lost an episode, and who cares that you lost anyways? Get it off your mind, and don’t let your little ego get in the way of your life. Understand what is important and do not sweat on the little things. There is no shame in that which is gainful…sometimes losing is more gainful than winning. Pride and arrogance have great price tags… unfortunately one act of pride is like a loan you took uninformed which you may pay for the rest of your life. The people you want to please or who are cheering you on will not be there when you pay for the outcome of your stupidity even though they hailed and clapped for you…all because you want to win over a business or a man or a lady or some position or some worthless argument that does not pay a dime of your bills.
Consider the long-term effect and the impact on your overall plan for your life or the life of your business and for posterity and let that guide your actions and decisions. All these nonsense about being ‘competitive’ is leading many down the road of despondency and corner- cutting. How else do you want to know you have lost the argument? If your boss told you what to do at your job and you say no one tells me what to do, what do you think will happen next? Let’s say it is this corona virus season and he fired you or cut your hours to nothing, by the time your bills are due then you know if someone tells you what to do or not. Who lost? I live in my own world and I do what I want is because you are ignorant of the externalities of such unguarded utterances. Nobody gets to that level that nobody can advice, correct or instruct him on what and what not to do. Even if you are the CEO and founder of your company, you do not have all the answers. You have the power to hire and fire, but you do not use those powers irrationally. There are people you would fire, and you win at a huge loss. It is wisdom to understand this and to let that knowledge work in your favor every single time. “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honor, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee” (Prov. 4:7-9)
Mezie Okolo is a leadership analyst