“The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.” — Pierre de Coubertin, Father of the modern Olympics
Competition is like a virtue, which can be a powerful source for improving our souls and society, but, when take to an extreme, can become a vice.
Just as too gritty a stone can make a razor blade jagged, too much competition can coarsen a man instead of sharpen him. A scene in the film There Will Be Blood adroitly reveals the negative effects of excessive competition in a man. In it, the money-hungry oilman Daniel Plainview waxes about his all-consuming obsession with competition and in the process reveals how it has stripped him of his humanity:
Plainview: Are you an angry man, Henry?
Henry Brands: About what?
Plainview: Are you envious? Do you get envious?
Henry Brands: I don’t think so. No.
Plainview: I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Henry Brands: That part of me is gone… working and not succeeding — all my failures has left me… I just don’t… care.
Plainview: Well, if it’s in me, it’s in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.
Henry Brands: What will you do about your boy?
Plainview: I don’t know. Maybe it will change. Does your sound come back to you? I don’t know. Maybe no one knows that. A doctor might not know that.
Henry Brands: Where is his mother?
Plainview: I don’t want to talk about those things. I see the worst in people. I don’t need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I’ve built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry… to have you here gives me a second breath. I can’t keep doing this on my own with these… people.
So how can you make competition a virtue in your life instead of a vice, and use it to boost rather than sap your humanity?
By actually being an absolute champion of competition, in all its purity.
Those who truly love the soul and spirit of competition don’t participate in it just to win, but because they love the fight itself. They love the struggle. They love the way it brings out the fullest potential of human beings, and weighs and sifts competitors until the most skilled and spirited rise to the top.
This love keeps them from engaging in unethical practices. Competition wouldn’t be competition without a level playing field, and victory wouldn’t be sweet if they cheated to win. Thus, they not only play fairly themselves, but advocate for fair play in others.
They lose with grace, and respect their rivals. They love their “enemies,” for they show them where their weaknesses are, and how they can improve. They support those who fall far short of the top as well, celebrating that glorious and wholly unique aspect of humanity which chooses to struggle when they could be comfortable.
They want everyone to enjoy the thrill of competition, the magnificent sparks created from battles of will and skill, and so do all they can to bring out competition’s best qualities.
Those who love the pure essence of competition harness their inner Spartan, rather than their inner Plainview, and end up loving humanity more, not less.
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