2nd Place Gets You Nowhere!

 

YES YES yow, 2nd PLACE GETS YOU NOWHERE. That's the least debatable statement ever!  WHETHER you are a bigtime business mogul OR you're one of the top professional boxers OR you belong to one of the top NBA ballclubs, It's GOLD OR bust.  It's the top plum OR none.  Of course, if you end up 2nd, you would hear faint hurrahs BUT trust me, that's one of those 'garbage time' stuff.  Because WHO cares the 2nd placer?  WHO really thinks that the 2nd placer was just a hairline away from being the overall winner?  In the NBA, when it's trade season with top ballclubs aiming for the NBA superstars within the top tier of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Lebron James, forecasts would shortlist the probable winners to 2 or 3 clubs and WHEN one club wins it, DOES 2nd PLACE MATTER???

True, competition is tight anywhere everywhere and all that matters really is to be atop the field.  WHEN I was with Dole Food, in one of our dinners with our CEO, he cockily took pride that in our very tight market then, we were becoming the runaway leader with a distant second to boot.  I then felt some air of braggadocio during that dinner BUT I knew then that he was NOT standing on shifting sands as I did bear witness HOW he aggressively took on the challenges in our tight market then, demanding 100% QA results from our very pressured production teams.  And NOT satisfied with our QA ratings, he tracked the CSAT [Customer Satisfaction] and NPS [Net Promoter Scores] right from our foreign markets in Japan.  Only then I think he managed to gather that gumption that we had a competitor WHO was eating our dust as a far 2nd from us.  Shifting over to our own lives, is it now ripe for us to throw out to the windows all our aspirations to be the 2nd tier, to be the 2nd placer in WHATEVER competition or rat race we are in now???

The thing is, many of us are indeed making progress most of the time, WHETHER it's in our academic endeavors, OR at the workplace OR even in our business forays.  BUT WHAT is quite a scare is BURNOUT does hit us along the way although BURNOUT has been dissected from researches as a perception of reduced personal OR even professional accomplishment OR simply put, that feeling like you are getting nowhere.  Oh Oh, that kind of negativity can spiral and WHEN you're feeling negative, it can be difficult to see the positive side of things💚💛💜

Many times, it's all a matter of perception.  Through the years, I constantly reminded myself of my very basic ground rules.  LIKE I write down my wins, no matter how small those wins are.  I then reflect on my immediate past week regardless of WHAT and HOW things transpired that week.  I then pick up my own accomplishments for that week and even those small-small good things that happened.  WHY?  Because that could potentially boost my own mental health everyday in fact.  Now, if there's one thing I kept closest to my chest.  It's journaling OR keeping notes of every kudos, complements and testimonials I receive from any legitimate source [Yesssirrrree, I DON'T go for those bogus testimonials].  WHY does that matter?  During my NOT so smooth days, those days WHICH I'll tag as rough, a streak of hope gets out from those testimonials, enough to keep me going

Our takeaway:  It is a fact that no rookie, neophyte OR newcomer reaches the pinnacle of success as instantly as those noodles get cooked and eaten.  You've got to invest all the sweat and sacrifices as you progressively move on, even if it means literally inching via inch every so often.  Eventually, you will be at the outside looking in, at the very precipice of success BUT once you reach the top, grab the plum and NEVER fail NOT to look back from time to time because your ultimate mission is to ensure that 2nd placer is a far 2nd placer, someone WHO could 'eat your dust' because 2nd PLACE GETS ONE NOWHERE!!!