Jimmy Chim

Tag: Winning

  • Karate Lessons

    When I was a kid, I practiced karate for a few years. I focused on kata, basically a choreography of martial arts movements. Like most Japanese art forms, precision, control, and accuracy are key to a great kata performance.

    One year I participated in a kata competition. My body was tense that day. The moves were not smooth. I lost balance on one of the turns. The punches and kicks lacked measured strength.

    I came in second. I was devastated.

    “If you are number one, you may not have won. But if you are number two, you have for sure lost.” I said, in tears, as my mom came to comfort me.

    My mom then kindly said, “Isn’t it good to lose sometimes? Others get to feel happy. And you get to learn what you need to work on next time.”

  • Win-win

    A while back I treated a friend to lunch. This week she treated me to dinner. Both meals cost about the same. On paper we are even: no monetary gain or loss.

    In reality both of us are better off. We had fun together. We each had an opportunity to give. We each accepted a gift. We both won.

    The real value lies in the act of giving and receiving. No accounting can measure that.

  • When Winning Isn’t Winning

    Pyrrhus of Epirus was an ambitious Greek king and a strong opponent against early Rome. In the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, he triumphed against the Romans but destroyed most of his own forces.

    In Pyrrhus’s own words, it was “a victory that is not worth winning because so much is lost to achieve it…If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”

    This is now called a pyrrhic victory, where the deep losses outweigh the gain. Winning a battle, but losing the war.