{"id":459,"date":"2007-10-23T00:14:56","date_gmt":"2007-10-23T04:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/playing-a-bet-2"},"modified":"2007-10-23T00:14:56","modified_gmt":"2007-10-23T04:14:56","slug":"playing-a-bet-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/?p=459","title":{"rendered":"Playing a better game of life – part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winners, Losers, and Victims<\/span> <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n

One essential aspect of any game is to fully understand the possible outcomes beforehand.<\/p>\n

We have all heard about the benefits of winning and the penalties
\nassociated with losing, but too few know about the ancient strategy of
\navoiding defeat by claiming to be a victim.<\/p>\n

This is the strategy that claims others won because they had an unfair
\nadvantage, and because the victim was handicapped in some way, and
\nbecause, well you know, things are always unfair, etc. etc.<\/p>\n

Winners almost always win because of better preparation. It may not
\nseem like that to the losers, because winners sometimes seem to carry
\noff winning performances with ease, but winning is almost never an
\naccident.<\/p>\n

The winning actress gets the part because she flossed every day,
\npracticed when others were out partying, and studied like crazy to
\ndevelop the skills needed to succeed. <\/p>\n

The winning executive learns from his past mistakes and understands
\nthe politics of the workplace well enough to know what is REALLY wanted
\nfrom him.<\/p>\n

Successful people endure a lot of deprivation in order to achieve
\nlong-term goals. These can include studying while others party,
\npainstaking preparation for presentations, long hours spent getting
\nresults, the list can be endless. Winning depends on getting enough
\nright to make a go of it. All the preparation will be in vain if
\nsomething vital is missed. There is no guarantee of success. There is
\nonly an increasing probability of success if you know enough and are well-prepared.<\/p>\n

One key point is that winners make more friends than enemies and
\nthese friends help propel them to positions of powers and success.
\nPeople who climb to success by exploiting others eventually get thrown
\ndown by those they have betrayed.<\/p>\n

Losers are those who fail to do enough of the actions that lead to
\nsuccess. They may floss and study and all of that, but somewhere along
\nthe way, they get discouraged and stop trying. Some stop trying in
\ngrade school and we see them sleeping in doorways and under bridges.<\/p>\n

Victims are losers who are not willing to take responsibility for
\ntheir own defeat. They seek sympathy for imagined wrongs. We are not
\ndiscussing victims of hurricanes here, we are discussing those who seek
\na handicap for their incompetence. They will seek an advantage because
\nof their color or race or circumstances of birth rather than seeking
\nequality of opportunity. Victims, in a word, are irresponsible.<\/p>\n

There are good reasons why the bar shouldn’t be lowered for those
\nwho are less "fortunate". Airlines would be even more dangerous if
\nflown by the educationally challenged. Government by the terminally
\nconfused would be an adventure that most of us in the U.S. could not
\ncontemplate. Government is a chore that challenges the most highly
\nskilled and motivated. Anyone who has held senior positions in a
\ngood-sized company knows how incredibly difficult it is to get things
\nto run right even with highly skilled people involved.<\/p>\n

There are whole books that can be written on this subject. The
\nbottom line is that success takes a LOT of work and a very small amount
\nof luck. That is as it should be. When this natural order is
\noverturned, things go downhill rapidly.<\/p>\n

(This was originally published on Sept 02, 2005)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Winners, Losers, and Victims One essential aspect of any game is to fully understand the possible outcomes beforehand. We have all heard about the benefits of winning and the penalties associated with losing, but too few know about the ancient … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1805],"tags":[1260,1261,1259],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3R4iK-7p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/makingripples.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}