Checkmate.
By: Siva S.
I remember when I was a child, I loved chess. I wasn’t very good at it when I was young, but I loved playing it anyways. My uncle was my chess buddy. We would play chess together every weekend, and that time was so precious to me. Sometimes we would get so immersed in the game that we would start losing track of time. I don’t know what it was about chess – but I was hooked.
Playing with my uncle was the best, he never let me win because I was a child like my parents did, and through this, he taught me an invaluable lesson, he taught me one of the biggest life lessons, the art of losing graciously. Everyone needs to be taught the importance of accepting winning and losing with grace, because it’s part of life. In fact, because my uncle didn’t let me win purposely, every time I did win, it was such a more intense victory, because I earned it. I would never have appreciated the games I did win, if it were not for all the countless games I did lose.
I learned through these weekly chess games, that really, it wasn’t about whether I won or not. It was how I played the game. Checkmate didn’t mean that it was over, because, it wasn’t over. It was just another experience, to be completely honest; it was actually in the games I lost that I learned the most about chess.
In life, you have to remember, that it isn’t the final destination that is the most important, but rather the journey you took there. That’s where you will have learned the most, grew the most, and that journey is what’s important. The lessons, experience that emerged from your losses make a solid foundation that make your success so much stronger and allow you to appreciate it much more.
Failure is not final. Many times when something goes wrong, is it easy to think that situations cannot be worse, and that everything is done. But, we fail to realize that behind every successful person, are many stories of past failures. What makes these people different from someone who does not succeed? They did not sit on the sidewalk and complain when they fail; they instead picked themselves up and used their failure as a learning experience. And, who hasn’t failure? In fact, the strongest of success stories, are paved with failure. Think of these few people, who have drowned in failure, but rose above the waters. (Derived from The Road to Success is paved with Failure, by Joey Green)
John F. Kennedy failed to make the football team at the Canterbury School, his Connecticut prep school, and failed Latin at Choate Academy. He lost the election for president of his freshman class at Harvard University, failed to win a post on the student council as a sophomore, and dropped out of Stanford Business School. – John F. Kennedy was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1946, the US Senate in 1952, and the office of President of the United States in 1960.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school’s varsity football team as a sophomore. – Michael Jordan became one of the greatest basketball players in the history of the sport.
Walt Disney’s first cartoon production company, Laugh-O-Gram, went bankrupt. – Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and became the most famous name in film animation. He produced Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi and Cinderella and founded Wonderland.
Karl Marx, after obtaining his doctorate in philosophy from the university in Jena, Prussia, in 1841, was denied a job as a teacher at the university because he opposed the Prussian government. – Karl Marx went on to write The Communist Manifesto with Friedrich Engels and Das Kapital. He founded two of the most powerful mass movements in history – democratic socialism and revolutionary communism.
Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard University in 1975. – The same year, Bill Gates formed Microsoft Corporation with Paul Allen. Gates designed the software to run the first micro-computers and became the world’s richest man.
Carly Fiorina, a UCLA Law school dropout, worked as a Hewlett-Packard shipping clerk. – Carly Fiorina, appointed CEO of Hewlett Packard in 1999, became the first female CEO of a blue chip company.
Elvis Presley’s music teacher at L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee, gave him a C and told him he couldn’t sing. – Elvis Presley became “the King of Rock and Roll,” selling more than 600 million albums and singles before his death in 1977. He starred in three movies.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for 27 years as punishment for his efforts opposing apartheid. – Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected President in 1994 after sharing the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Thomas Alva Edison was fired from his job working in a telegraph office after one of his chemical experiments exploded. – Thomas Alva Edison became known as the “Wizard of Menlo Park” for inventing the electric light, the phonograph, and the mimeograph machine, and for improving upon the stock ticket, the telephone, the typewriter, and motion pictures
Winning really isn’t everything, there is so much more than just winning. Remember, “A good balance of winning and losing is important. If you just win all the time, you won’t get anything out of it; having some tough losses can be really important. (Andrew Shue).”
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