Learning How to Both Win and Lose: An Essential Transferable Skill We All Need for Success

By Matt Amerlan

Director of Workforce Development

To reset on the concept we’ve shared previously, at Positive Athlete we believe in the idea that transferrable skills we learn are essential to all of us in our ability to be nimble, successful, and take on challenges in any arena, industry, or setting in life. Relative to the workplace, we’ve discussed how in this day and age of ever evolving, fast changing technology, developing foundational soft skills that we can transfer to any setting are more essential than ever.

It is these skills (such as adaptability, resilience, teamwork, and communication) that allow us to adapt, learn, and thrive in any environment, especially in an environment where the technical skills we need are always evolving and changing. With that, the nearly 10 million high school age student athletes in the U.S. and athletes at every level are learning these sought after soft skills first hand in spades through their athletic journey.

In thinking about some of the most important skills that we can learn through sports we asked High School Athletic Directors, “What are the critical skills sport teaches kids that they cannot fully learn in a classroom?”

Grady Fallon, Toledo High School (WA) A.D. shared:

“The skill that I think sports teaches the most is winning and losing. In class, every kid can get an A on an assignment if they work hard. In a game, no matter how hard you work, one of the teams win and one loses… and that’s ok, because it’s a GAME! It’s fun. The satisfaction should not only come from winning, but from preparation, effort, and execution of the game plan.”

The ability to learn how to win and lose, and what we take from that, when you think about it, is one of the most important transferable skills we can develop. Whether it is in sports, or any profession or industry, putting in the work, committing to and refining processes, and how that impacts our execution is going to determine how successful we are in any competitive setting and impact the wins and losses. The point is, we are all going to experience both wins and losses and both contribute to how we grow and find success in the end.

Growth Through Experience

In any journey it is about what we take from each of our experiences (win or lose), how it informs our next experience, and how we progress and improve from it. Failure (or experiencing losses) is a big part of the experience. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, entrepreneurs have a significant failure rate. The data shows that roughly 20% - 24% of small businesses fail in the first year; about 48% - 50% close their doors by year 5; and by year 10 roughly 65% of businesses established a decade earlier have failed. Those that ultimately find success will learn from the “losses” we all experience in some form.

To wrap up the conversation on the importance of learning from both wins and losses, isn't it fascinating that in the sport of baseball you can fail (lose) 7 out of 10 opportunities at the plate and it is the 3 wins out of 10 that will get you to the hall of fame?

Dual Threat Playbook Tip: Learning from wins and losses is an important transferable skill.