"SUCCESS IS IN THE BOUNCE, NOT THE BREAK"
Adolph Rupp, the
legendary coach of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, once said, “Defeats,
intelligently used, are stepping-stones to success. We tell our boys, when they
are defeated, we want them to be broadminded and hold their heads high, accept
defeat graciously, but learn from the defeat that will pave the way to victory.”
Rupp was certainly no loser. He led the Wildcats to four national titles and a
winning percentage of .822. He is certainly one of college basketball’s greatest
coaches. It was Rupp who said, “If winning doesn’t matter then why is there a
scoreboard in every gym in America?”
Yet as intent as Rupp was about winning, he also knew that one of the keys to
success is in how we bounce back from those inevitable defeats. He knew that you
had to keep bouncing back if you were going to keep winning. Life goes on. It’s
only when we quit that we truly fail. It’s the quality of bouncing that
determines our success. Breaking is inevitable. The question is, how do you keep
bouncing?
REFUSE TO BLAME OTHERS. When we blame someone else we only shift the responsibility from ourselves, and that immobilizes us. By taking responsibility we force ourselves into action. We can then attack the problem. Of course, responsibility is proportional to designation of duty. The gas station attendant at the local full-service station is not responsible for the escalation of gas prices! You are however accountable for your area of responsibility. I love what Paul Bear Bryant, the great football coach at the University of Alabama, once said, “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes,” he said, “to get people to win football games for you.” He must have known what he was talking about because he tallied 323 victories and led the University of Alabama to six national titles.
LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKE AND MOVE ON. Leadership expert John Maxwell has said, “If there is a single factor that makes for a successful life, it is the ability to draw lessons from defeat.” What we must do is learn whatever needs to be learned--- whether it was deficient preparation, fatigue from over-training, too much stress, lack of focus--- and then move on, a wiser and more effiicient person.
GET BACK IN THE GAME AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you failed a test at school or bumbled that project at work, get back on track as soon as possible by trying again. Being gun-shy after a blast will only intensify insecurities.
THINK ABOUT YOUR GOALS. What are your goals? Go back to them and rethink them. Then dream again. It is in the dream that you will find energy to start again.
KEEP GROWING. Think of every failure as God’s gift specifically designed to advance you on your success journey. We grow bigger as we keep bouncing back. Sir Edmund Hillary made several unsuccessful attempts at scaling Mount Everest. He failed. But he bounced back. On one occasion Hillary stood at the base of Mount Everest and shook his fist at the mountain. “I’ll defeat you yet,” he defiantly shouted. “You’re as big as you’re going to get---but I’m still growing.”
Perhaps that’s the key to it all: understanding that it’s not the defeat that makes us a failure; it’s whether we bounce back or stay down. It’s the bounce, not the break that determines our true success or failure. And, you will never have the opportunity to bounce back until you’re knocked down. You may be knocked down but not knocked out! Or as writer F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, “Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.” Keep bouncing back because it’s never final unless you quit.