Gold. Gold standards. Gold plated this, gold plated that. Rose gold. Gold coins. Gold medals. Gold chains. Gold as investment, gold as adornment. In a world obsessed with winning, gold is the pinnacle. The zenith. The apex. First place is always gold, second place is irrelevant. Our fascination starts young. We admire athletes that outcompete and we exploit our formative years for academic glory. Society has also come to value early and tremendous success. 30 under 30 lists, will soon morph into 20 under 20.
Winning is important. Ultimately, a gold medal is a testament of one’s hard work and consistency. And yet, my experiences at Ivey have taught me that there is often value in coming in second, or sometimes not getting on the podium at all.
Not winning is liberating. It helps us get rid of the vanity of doing things because ‘that's the way it should be done to win’. It’s a great foundation to engage in some first principles thinking and to question from the ground up. Why are things done in a certain way? Is there a different way of doing things? Why are things even ‘done’ in the first place?
Silver medals, or for that matter bronze medals or participation certificates are important because they help us rebuild and reorient. Not winning helps us introspect deeply. It’s a foundation to ask a spectrum of deeply personal questions. What can I do differently? Am I well-suited for this endeavor to start with? Should I pursue something different altogether? What is the point of this?
When we compete, blinkers-on, we ignore possibilities and opportunities that arise from collaborating. These days successful businesses are often so differentiated they aren’t even directly competing with other businesses. As Peter Thiel puts it, to go from 0 to 1 we must think differently. Competing means playing a game that exists, with rules that exist. Successful modern businesses thrive because they are able to create ‘new games’ with ‘new rules’. This is markedly different from businesses of yore, which aimed to monopolize games and exploit those who play. The world is clamoring for people who can think beyond competition, are we listening?
As we navigate our careers, while also competing in myriad ways, I have realized it is far more important to take the opportunity of being around smart people to raise questions. Often, silver medals represent a sincere effort, and are a foundation to discover our true potential. As we compete mindlessly, how many among us question if we can build things of value, together?
Competition is inevitable. There will be winners and losers. Yet, holding a silver medal is a reminder to look at the bigger picture and to also not take life so seriously. Over the course of the last few months, I participated in several case competitions. Ranging from the mundane to the highly complex. I never won a single one of these competitions but I did discover something I was truly passionate about in the process.
Ivey provides ample opportunities for one to go compete for that pot of gold, to aim for glory, to hustle. However, my experiences have taught me that sometimes a silver medal is the golden-ticket.