How Do You Want to Win?

How Do You Want to Win?
I had the pleasure of attending the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona this past weekend. For any of you who follow this blog regularly, you know that racing, and in particular NASCAR racing, is a huge passion of mine. It is right up there with the coaching and consulting I do. Helping people win in life and in business correlates with my passion for racing. What made this weekend even better is that I was able to share the experience with someone who had never been to a race.
It was an amazing race, with all the excitement one could expect, especially as someone’s first. Going to the mecca of NASCAR racing on the Fourth of July, celebrating everything that is great about America and seeing a phenomenal finish was awesome. The lead changed in the last lap; then the lead driver slammed into the wall and triggered a massive wreck—all the elements of racing excitement in one event.
Tony Stewart was the eventual winner, and it was his handling of Kyle Busch’s wreck that impressed me most. It was Tony’s car that got Kyle Busch loose coming out of turn 4, but when Kyle moved up the track to block him, Kyle’s car was spun sideways and into the wall at over 180 miles per hour. Even in the stands we could see from the replay on the Jumbotron monitors that is was nobody’s fault. It was a fact of racing: everyone’s fighting for the same piece of real estate and going for the win. Tony Stewart came out on the better end of the deal this time, but even as he crossed the finish line, he was on his radio, saying “I don’t like winning ‘em like that.” He was also extremely humble in all his post-race interviews, making sure that everyone knew he was not at all happy about what had happened to Kyle Busch.
A term in racing says it all: “clean.” This means racing tough but not wrecking your opponents on purpose in order to win. Tony Stewart raced Kyle Busch “clean,” and that brings me to the point of this blog. Are you racing everyone clean? I know successful people—successful by society’s standards, anyway—who did not win honestly. I wonder, “Did they truly do what was in the best interest of their client, their relationships, their family, and their business partners, or did they put their winning above and beyond everyone else in their life?”
How do you want to be remembered? As someone who was fair and honest or someone who tried to win at all costs? Wrecks happen in life as well as in racing. What matters is where your intentions lie. Make decisions that you can sleep with at night. Let the past be history and move on to race “clean” for the next victory.
Erik Elsea
www.erikelsea.com