What's the point of winning at all costs?
I saw this tweet the other day, and I know that I shouldn't be surprised by it, but it raised this question in my head which I can't stop thinking about.
What's the thing about winning at all costs?
How can people even win without building meaningful relationships?
Isn't that the goal of whatever we're doing here? To be better together?
I'm struggling to understand what might be the fulfillment of those wins.
Won't you just feel empty in the end?
What am I missing?
Yeah, curious tweet by Andreesen. Maybe he was just trying to stir up Twitter discussion.
It's worked! 😆
Winning and being liked are not mutually exclusive.
I do think that people pleasing can lead to losing more often.
Some people play a zero sum game in life, but to me, those people are the real losers b/c they don't live with much humanity.
Yeah, I guess we can say it worked 😅
I definitely agree with this, but I'm still genuinely curious to understand what's the emotional reward of winning at all costs... Probably I'll never get it.
I actually don't think it's a reward. I think it's an emotional price that gets paid.
I used to be a Michael Jordan fan.
Then I watched The Last Dance about the Chicago Bulls back in the '90s. I don't think you could find anyone in the history of sport that wanted to win more than His Airness.
What was sad, and where I lost a lot of admiration for him - was in how he treated Scottie Pippen and others on that team. His demand to win at all costs was so destructive.
Today, he seems bitter and miserable, in spite of his global status and enormous wealth.
That's an interesting point of view and puts a lot into perspective.
But still — if you're willing to pay that price, it means that you're hoping to get something out of that investment.
Is the return/reward just recognition? That you are the best doing something?
Jordan did seem a bit unhappy... But I don't think there was any regret either.
If someone is indeed the best at something, it is fleeting - because there is always a hungry up-and-comer. That's why I like watching UFC - there's always a tougher guy. It's a great business model because the question never ends.
And if any of them puts too much stock in keeping a perfect W-L record, they'll eventually lose - and then experience deep depression. Rhonda Rousey comes to mind.
Living with a peaceful mindset and inner contentment are always worth more than winning at all costs.
Thanks for the interesting convo - have a productive week!
Agree! This has to be the way.
Thank you as well @Cowboy! You too ✌️
The guy is a sociopath ,like many high-powered executives, VC honchos, CEOs , etc. I say this only as a descriptive term,I dont admire them ofc, but I dont have time here to criticize them. Lying,manipulation, backstabbing, grand-statement, zero remorse..have never hindered them,on the contrary. You can do it in a moral way (on a much much more modest scale) but your odds are lower. Marx was right on this, you dont get to become a billionaire or even multimillionaire without directly or indirectly exploiting people or laws here and there.
We can always win the lottery 😁
There wouldn't be any exploit with that I think.
For what it's worth, if you remove it from the context of entrepreneurship, the sentiment isn't necessarily bad. There are certainly many things worth doing in life that involve antagonizing people, like being mean to Nazis and people who want to take other people's rights away.
That being said, yeah, this is just dumbshit VC brain in action. There's nothing about building a successful business and making people's lives better that somehow necessitates being an asshole. If anything, if you're being an asshole, you're probably doing something wrong.
The well-known paradox of tolerance!
But I do feel the same way — even if there are multiple ways to find success in business, if you're being an asshole, that's a choice, not a strategy.