Winning to some is about the transaction. It’s about being right. It’s about the mic drop. The sound byte. The power play.
I would argue that this class of winning is the most temporary and destructive form of serotonin inducing behavior. It’s a gateway drug to poor decisions and even poorer outcomes. It creates a world where there too much is binary right and wrong, when any logical person knows the gray area is vast.
To offer an alternative – in order to support an environment that has the highest probability for commercial, social, and/or governmental success, winning must be seen as a collective uplifting.
The reality is that ideas are almost never 100% birthed from a single person. They are almost always iterated upon and made better by being challenged. Compromise that creates an inclusive, holistic, and forward moving plan for your constituents or target market is ultimately healthy progression. Executing on that plan, iterating based on your learnings, and seeing and touching the results of your work. It happens long after your product is launched, you win an election, close that big deal, or graduate from college.
This is real winning.
Annie Tsai 