What was your "best loss"?
The central theme of my first book, WIN AT LOSING, is a pretty simple concept -- that losing offers great opportunities for growth. Along the way I cite a bunch of examples -- national elections, high-profile sporting events, business failures -- all sorts of screw-ups that ultimately benefited people in surprising ways. I even cite a couple of my own, like a bad pass in a high school playoff hockey game that led to an opposing goal and ended my team's season. Trivial as it may seem now, it was a crushing episode for a 16-year-old kid whose life revolved around hockey. But it was also what inspired me to be a better player the next season.
Jordan Spieth's biggest loss was no doubt when he blew a five-shot lead with nine holes to play in the 2016 Masters. Whether it was his "best loss" remains to be seen. Photo by Getty Images.
I suspect everyone has a story like that, in sports or elsewhere, so it begs the question: What was your "best loss"? By that I mean exactly how it sounds: What was the loss that hurt the most but ultimately served you? What did you learn? And how did you eventually come to see it as something other than just an unwanted outcome?
My hope is to compile a bunch of these stories, and share the most compelling of them on this site. Send me a note in the form below, and I'll be sure to respond.