Everyone wants to be a winner.
Everyone loves a winner.
No one ever remembers who came in second or who lost a championship match.
Winners get to enjoy the spoils, so why wouldn’t you want to be a winner? Losing is for losers and who wants to be a loser?
In this final installment of my Game of Life series of posts, I posit that “winning” is relative.
What exactly is “winning” outside of the context of a game or a sporting contest?
Is “winning” considered becoming a wealthy man? Is “winning” being successful at your chosen profession or business endeavor?
The previous entries in this series centered around how to navigate interpersonal relationships and puts the concept of money in (my humble opinion) its proper perspective.
To me, winning at the Game of Life has nothing to do with becoming wealthy. Making money beyond a certain point, usually when you make enough to keep the bill collectors away and have enough left over to have a decent amount of disposable income, tends to invite more trouble than it does pleasure. There is a salient truth to the saying “mo’ money, mo’ problems”.
Can anyone deny the statistics and sad stories about lottery winners? Everyone complains about CEO compensation, but you’d have to be crazy, ultra-competitive, and an uber-workaholic in order be one. The life of a CEO is not carefree and stressless. CEOs are not sitting in a plush office smoking cigars with their feet on their desks and barking orders to everyone, despite what popular media culture tells you. I don’t know about you, but my idea of the good life isn’t working 70-80 hours a week under a microscope where the slightest mistake will get you fired and replaced by one of your power-hungry adversaries.
Winning is relative. I’m a winner because I’m happy with myself. I’m doing a job I absolutely love and is rewarding in more than just the pecuniary sense.
Living your best life is the key to winning the Game of Life. Happiness comes not in chasing materialistic goals, chasing other people’s validation, or living vicariously through others.
Happiness comes from doing what makes you happy, surrounding yourself with people who bring value to your life rather than chaos, and being able to give value to others in return.
Happiness comes from chasing excellence by improving yourself as a person. Success does not belong to anyone and it cannot be bought. Success is rented and the rent is due everyday.
-The Rational Ram
The Rational Ram 