Defeat
The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where football was a religion, and Ohio State’s legendary football coach, Woody Hayes, was its high priest. In 28 years at Ohio State, Woody was named coach of the year three times, while winning five national championships and 13 Big Ten titles. His overall record was 205-61-10, for a winning margin of .761. Woody believed the key to his success was not in outsmarting his opponents but in outworking them. There was certainly nothing fancy about his coaching style. He believed in tough defense and a grind-it-out offense characterized as “three yards and a cloud of dust.” Of course, he hated to lose. “Show me a gracious loser,” Woody once growled, “and I’ll show you a bus boy.” He hated to lose so much he was sometimes known to punch himself in frustration. Occasionally, he would also punch other people, which got him into hot water. Eventually, it got him fired.
In the end, Woody's aversion to losing is what defeated him. His mistake was in thinking his worst defeats were suffered on the football field, rather than on the sidelines when he took a swing at pesky news photographer or at an opposing linebacker. In ways large and small, we are defeated every day. The big defeats are the ones we remember, and for that reason we are more likely to learn from them. The small ones are easier to ignore -- usually by trying to pass them off as something else -- so we keep repeating them. In time, small defeats lead to bigger ones, until we can no longer ignore them. The secret to life is to meet everything head on, even the bad stuff; otherwise, it repeats. As Woody himself said, “There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."
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