Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. ---John Maxwell
John Maxwell is a popular motivational speaker and writer, focusing on what it takes to be an effective leader. Like many others in his trade, he has a knack for coming up with one-liner quotes that put things into a more positive, constructive framework...the above one is a good example. The more commonly-used phrase, of course, is Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. In Maxwell's rephrasing, he cleverly renders "losing" equivalent to "learning"...not that you can't learn a bit from victorious experiences as well. But to a lot of people, sadly, coming up short in anything is so deflating and humiliating that they would rather not undertake any venture that, naturally, would expose them as not being perfect. And perfectionism in this regard is the "perfect" way to ensure that the more realistic, farther-range goals of competency and expertise will never be achieved. I always felt that the grading system in my school years had an inbuilt flaw in that a student's progress in class was negatively skewed by overemphasizing their errors...in my opinion there should have been a two-tiered system whereby a paper, presentation or test/quiz, once corrected, would be repeated with only that second score recorded as the final grade. But that's just me...those kids who regarded school work as a crucial judgment on their own worth...either to others or themselves...would likely disagree, as would most of the teachers whose classes I suffered through over the years. But I'm no longer a student and am free to lose learn with impunity...no one's keeping score anymore. Now getting something right should be properly recognized and rewarded, whether it's academic, athletic, altruistic, relational, financial, or another area of endeavor. But to get to that point, folks just need to exercise a little humility and allow themselves to screw up and learn from those mistakes. As Frank Sinatra once said, "Dare to wear the foolish clown's face"...
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