Creating a Need for Competition at a Young Age
By: Max Sakiewicz
Tags: Perseverance, Self Improvement, Hard Work, Competition, Education

Being A Winner Was Being A Loser In 3rd Grade

Like I said earlier, when I was a kid competition was something that I loved. Whether that was winning a class competition or winning my soccer game on the weekend, I hated losing. But when I was in third grade I found my first taste of an adult frowning upon my ability to win competitions. The class assignment was to create a poster that best represented a book that we read aloud in class; a western fiction book. Each class in my grade would participate and the winner of the grade would get Mcdonalds for free, and as a 3rd grader, Mcdonalds was the ultimate prize.

So being the competitive person that I am, I tried to make the best poster design that I could. When I was finished with the poster I was certain that I would win the competition, and sure enough, I did. The day the results came back of who won, the teacher-judges informed me I was the winner. Obviously, I was happy but I didn’t gloat or put it in peoples faces, I just really wanted that 1st place prize of a Mcdonald’s meal. Before I knew it, I turned around to see the girl who had not placed absolutely crying her eyes out. Although I felt bad she was upset, there was nothing I could do for her because I had put in the extra effort to win. When the teachers saw the girl crying, they decided to give her the same prize as me; a free Mcdonald’s meal. When I saw that, I confronted the teacher and asked her why. The teacher then replied, “It’s not fair that you will get a better prize so we are going to give it to her too.” understandably, I was mad and I decided that I wasn’t going to take the prize anymore. That coveted prize I had worked so hard for had become devalued by the teachers giving it away to someone who lost. This clearly irritated the teachers, so they called my Mom and explained her the situation and told my Mom she should tell me to apologize to them. Thank god for my Mom because she told the teachers that they shouldn’t reprimand me for being upset that they devalued the hard work that I put in. If it wasn’t for my Mom I might have grown up believing that putting in the hard work doesn’t really matter. Because according to my teachers, if you win, it might not be fair to the person that you beat.

I will never forget that moment because it was the first time where I really realized that winning was something that took hard work and planning. And although the teachers decided to frown upon the hard work I had put in, my Mom set me back straight when she told me hard work would be the differentiator when it came to winning.

How That Experience Pushed Me To Want To Win

Sometimes in our culture, winning or being successful may be frowned upon. But as someone who has won a lot of high-level athletic competitions (and lost), I can firmly say that the feeling you receive after a win is so gratifying. When I was in 3rd grade and had that experience it angered me and I couldn’t understand why I was being punished. But I soon used that negative anger and turned it into positive energy in sports, and later in life, entrepreneurship.