sp215+Winning+is+Everything

**News Flash: Victory Isn't Life**
===Have you ever received a really low grade on a test ? Didn't it help you learn? Of course! If you had gotten a perfect score, learning wouldn't have taken place. It's true! Trust me, I have first- hand experience. If someone gets the gold medal at something, it means that they out- performed everyone there. No erudition occurred! Therefore, winning is not everything in life. ===

===The fact that the more you like to win, the harder it is to accept defeat is my first reason for why winning isn't everything. While it's true that being victorious won't go to some people's heads, winning a lot initially can cause someone to become conceited. They may brag to everyone how athletic they are, but once a better player comes along and defeats the arrogant person, they might become extremely annoyed and get revenge outside of the court. Overconfidence may also become a problem. If an athlete becomes overconfident that they will be victorious, losing will throw cause you to throw a fit. It can also bring in poor sportsmanship into the picture, as described by the next reason,===

===Poor sportsmanship is the second reason for why winning is not everything. Winning a lot can lead to being conceited and overconfident. Poor sportsmanship can occur after losing while being conceited and overconfident. In the movie //Legendary//, the main character, an academic achiever, took up wrestling as a sport. Even though he lost in the finals of the wrestling tournament he took part in, he got bigger cheers than the winner. Marie Curie, the famous scientist and another example of a good sport, accomplished a lot during the course of her lifetime. She discovered the elements Polonium and Radium, she won the Nobel Prize twice, one with her husband and one without, and was the first woman to deliver a speech at a Nobel Prize award ceremony. In spite all of these achievements, fame was not a bad influence to her. In fact, she herself said that she preferred working by herself in her lab as to being a famous scientist. Some people aren't as good sports. A handful of athletes, such as Lance Armstrong, used drugs to cheat. He used drugs to boost endurance, strengthen bones, etc. Needless to say, and although he denied it at first, he was accused of fraud and stripped of his titles since August 1998. He's not the only athlete who have used steroids or other performance- enhancing drugs. Who wants to feel guilty of cheating?===

===The fact that you learn by losing is the perfect reason for why winning is not everything. Although it may seem that winning makes you better, losing reveals your weaknesses. It can also help figure opponents' vulnerabilities and strong suits. What good will that do you? Well, once, I went to a minor tennis tournament with other kids that I know, with hopes of facing them and having a good time. Fun, right? Wrong. After I got there, the coordinators split us up into two groups of 4 and 5 people each. //I// was with the kids that I did not know and were //much// better than me. I did not win that many games, but I learned a lot about what I need to work on; I am going to participate in another one of those tournaments in two weeks, and I'll be prepared. In history, George Washington lost more battles than he won as a general. However, because he won the American Revolution, a lot of people do not know that. Losing early battles helped him get his army stronger. Similarly, coming up short in, for example, a sport can disclose personal shortcomings while increasing confidence for the next attempt. ===

===Even if it doesn't seem like it at first, taking the heat of losing can be better than bagging the trophy. Suffering defeat may diminish the self- esteem of some people, but it also helps them get better at what they lost at. Do you know what it feels like to lose? Then you've lived life, and that's why winning most certainly isn't everything in life.===