The Importance of Winning Essay -- Personal Narrative

The Importance of Winning There is an old saying â€Å" It doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.† How true is this? Can this be applied to all situations in life? This may be pertinent to children in schools who participate in trivial events such as sports, for example. However, with these types of ideas we are saying that losing is fine. Consequently, youths are goaded to contend with the ideas of being losers and also-rans. In events such as sports, politics, and even war, the old saying should be paraphrased to â€Å"It does matter if you win or lose and how you win.† Winning or losing can be a matter of life and death. Today’s professional sports players are so responsible for the team that they know they have to play at their best, with one hundred percent effort. Otherwise, the consequences are some times fatal for the fans and players as well. For instance, at the U.S. Soccer World Cup of 1994, the national team of Colombia was playing against the U.S. to qualify for the second round. One defender from the Colombian team, Andres Escobar Gomez, in an effort to kick the ball out of the terrain, accidentally kicked it into the goal of his team. The opposite team jeered the auto-goal because the victory for the U.S. was eminent. The Colombian fans were so angry that when the team went back to Colombia, the soccer player who scored the auto-goal was murdered two days later by radical fans. This is just a tragic example of how important it is to win. ...