Is it worth Winning a Battle but Losing the War ?
In life, we're all so battle-scarred and war-weary and more often, we are so close to the trees, we fail to see the forest. Simply put, we end up battling things out at the micro level and losing sight if it is really warranted to win a battle [arising from our short-sightedness] yet losing the very war we were so embroiled for the longest time.
US President Trump is my role model to shoot down the fallacy that it is worth to win every battle. When he launched his campaign as the GOP's presidential candidate, he was running against the GOP establishment, against Capitol Hill. And he lost a hell lot of GOP supporters whose commitment every traditional candidate will woe and lobby for. Instead, his campaign strategists were so focused on the support from their core constituencies from the grassroots. And when the GOP primaries took off at Iowa way back February 2016, Trump was not the frontrunner but instead, it was the amiable Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. But the trailblazing act of Ted Cruz was like a flash in the pan. As the GOP primaries progressed, Trump patiently built on the delegate pledges until he got nominated [as an underdog] vs the all-time favorite Hillary Clinton. Everything is history but in a nutshell, Trump is my hero for proving that you got to lose battles if you are so doggedly focused to win the war.
Fast-forward five years down the road, we are all hog tied to this covid global pandemic. And after five months, everyone should nod their heads to concur that this global pandemic is a long-drawn war. Unfortunately, there are national leaders who are so absorbed with the small battles around the landscape that, at all cost, they don't want less than winning each battle. Probably because of their inflated egos? Their hidden agenda? Their cans of worms? Without naming names, by now, we bear witness to the battles of this pandemic which may have been won by grandstanding leaders and misguided politicians. But what's the real score? What are today's numbers of covid cases? Yesssirrrr, the numbers have sky-rockteted beyond the roof !
In fact, the revered South African freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela retorted: 'I never lose. I either win or learn'. But those were the times when we had level-headed leaders.
Back to our domestic situations, everything has been unprecedented. For the married couples, who would have thought that they'll be under one roof for half a year by now without leaving their homes ? And obviously, that led some [and probably many] couples to domestic skirmishes a.k.a. battles. And battled they did. And they got bruised and scarred. And for those ego-inflated, winning arguments at home is akin to winning battles. But do they realize that those are likely pyrrhic victories that will lead them to losing the war when their relationship ends up so tattered and damaged beyond repair by then.
Let's cap off this all by quoting Christian Kondo, the well respected Canadian fashion influencer: 'Losing the battle doesn't mean you've lost the war and winning the battle doesn't mean you've won the war'.
