arubicus - 11:48 am on Feb 5, 2005 (gmt 0)

caveman

"The person who won the gold took it away from those who might have won the gold."

Explain how this takes away from the other when he never had it in the first place nor gave the necessary value for the exchange. It is a value for value exchange. If the other person didn't create enough value, the exchange for the gold medal isn't made. He gets the silver, bronze, or a nice try. (But due to the subjectivness of humans the guy who just gave it his all, the experience was just as valuable to him as the gold medal.

"Failing to place in one race, and running off to try in another race, is a loser's mentality. Face up, compete, win. Or explain away your losses with intellectual mind games."

If what you are doing isn't working change your approach. You can keep competing all you want if you maintain the same value and that value is below someone elses then you will never win the gold (if that is what you value from the experience). You have to change the circumstances by changing you approach. Try going fishing in the middle of a field with just a rock and no pond. Just keep tossing the rock around all day for the rest of your life. Compete and persevere all you want. Face up to the challenge. Unless you change your approach, which creates different circumstances and value, all you will get is me crossig your path asking you if you had any luck.

Edison kept on going many many times before the lightbulb was invented. He didn't run the same race. If he ran the same race over and over again he wouldn't have gotten anywhere. He learned from the other races he attempted. Each time he took that value of his experiences and created new races with different circumstances. He kept creating more new races, learning from experience, and changing his approach until he finally won the gold.

A looser's mentality isn't walking away from the race. A looser's mentality is one who gives up without deriving something of value from the experience.

Well enough about this stuff. It is way off topic. It is best for another thread or by sticky.