Winning and losing

I hate losing. I've already discussed the competitive/perfectionist issue, and let me emphasize that I squarely fall into the competitive camp. For me, winning, or succeeding, has become more and more important over time. And that has made me more and more competitive.

This week wrapped up a couple loose ends. A few of them wrapped up quite nicely. A few of them didn't. For the ones that didn't, I was really upset. I had to take a step back and think about why. Each situation is a little different, and there were different emotions involved with each of them, but the overarching theme for all of them was that I felt like I had lost.

I have a few people to talk me off the ledge. I think their advice is worth repeating.

* Sometimes when things don't work out the way you wanted, its actually for the better.
* Don't expect someone else's behavior to change just because you'd like it to. In fact, you shouldn't expect anyone's behavior to change.
* Just like in dating, in business, if he doesn't call back, he's just not that into you. If he was, he wouldn't be too busy.
* Sometimes its worth the money.
* Sometimes its not worth the money.
* It's better to be open up front then surprised later on.

So, there will continue to be successes and set backs. This week helped more clearly define the path to the successes and some of our risks for set backs. Luckily for my competitive streak, the path to success is much less cluttered now.