Almighty Losers!

Of what little I know of mythology, and history – and; perhaps this is Universal, be it in Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, or Zorastrians – the gods have always been portrayed as losers!

Each of these gods and saints could have done so much more, asserted themselves, used their powers, `shown off their attitude’ and emerged winners. Instead they displayed calmness and poise, magnanimity and alacrity, humility and modesty, patience and tolerance, and the right attitude.

But populism dictates that attitude is directly proportional to aggression, that equals assertivensess, and in short that equals materialistic possessions to determine as to whether you won or lost. History is replete with such examples – of those who had the all conquering attitude and what happened to those people like Alexander, Napolean, and Hitler.

Leaders across cultures wanted to expand their kingdoms, geographical borders through conquest, subjugation, war and thus declare they were the supreme. The deep desire was to establish themselves as the almighty of the world that mattered to them. We too like to show of our attitude of being an able leader, captain, statesman.

We all love to master our environments, be it home or workplace or life. We want to be on top of everything we do, or like to perceive that we are on the top. People who do so tend to consider themselves as the masters or as greats (winners).

We all get into this trap. An Ego state that gives you the inherent qualities of being Over Ambitious, Hyper competitive, Over controlling nature, and hungry for rewards, recognition. In this state one also tends to be too resistant to feedback, too unwilling to change, and inflexible, and most important “Showing-Off” Attitude. Take a peek into history, those were the qualities of Evils and Demons.

Are you proud to be a loser?

So, winners can be losers and losers can be winners. It all is a matter of attitude. As illustrated earlier, we all start as losers, but one is adjudged a winner. You may be the defending champion, so what! This is a new competition, a new arena, new rules, and hence new challenges. It is important for that person to get back to the original loser state and be hungry to prove themselves to the world again.

The biggest hurdle in this is perhaps the media hype that surrounds the so called winners. The media does it to dish out some so called interesting stuff for the couch potatoes, but this hype gets to the head of the champion and they already start behaving like winners, thus entering a state of over confidence and complacency.

Just take a look at most of the world championships (team sport or individual sport) and look at the upsets / surprises that you get. Most of the times the defending champions (winners) tend to be bitten or beaten by some underdog. Some stage a come back (our club of losers), while some stage shows (the so called illusionary winners). Sports, Entertainment, Politics and Religion -- there are examples you can narrate.

Taking a cue out of this, we are engulfed by Reality shows as couch potatoes and live it by the moment. Reality shows are churning `winners’ by the hour and they fade into oblivion in minutes, because the decision about their talent is made in seconds. Impulsiveness can never judge class (stuff) – for class (substance) is permanent.

The important lesson is to not get carried away and to keep persisting – yes we all want to win, but don’t get into the state of being winners – Proud to be a LOSER!