The world of athletics is an interesting conundrum. Day in and day out, coaches, athletes, and support staff focus their efforts and attention on the most microscopic details of performance with the hope of winning competitions and championships. Yet, despite the thousands of nuances, teams are judged by one metric and one metric only: winning. Many coaches preach culture and philosophy and insist that they are the most important pieces. But if you asked them to choose between a well-organized team who loses and a chaotic team who wins, many of them would pick the latter. Perhaps winning is the most important thing.

I can already imagine non-competitive people rolling their eyes and debating that winning isn't everything. But to the ones winning arguably matters to most, elite athletes whose careers depend on it, many of them would prioritize success over living itself. Take, for example, the Goldman's Dilemma. Physician Bob Goldman posed the following question to world class athletes: "If I had a magic drug that was so fantastic that if you took it once you would win every competition you would enter from the Olympic Decathlon to the Mr. Universe, for the next five years but it had one minor drawback, it would kill you five years after you took it, would you still take the drug?". In his original research from 1982-1995, over 50% of the athletes said they would willingly take that drug. So, just how important is winning?

To some, more important than living. The basketball legend Kobe Bryant once said, "When we are saying this cannot be accomplished, this cannot be done, then we are short-changing ourselves. My brain, it cannot process failure. It will not process failure. Because if I have to sit there and face myself and tell myself, 'You are a failure,' I think that is almost worse than dying.".

The quote, "Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.", was spread widely by author Napoleon Hill. While the quote was referring to business, I think it is extremely relevant to sports. See, when athletes or teams succeed, many may disagree with their approach, their technique, their style. But they can't deny the success they achieved. On the contrary, when athletes or teams fail, no amount of justification will excuse their inadequacy. In the eyes of many, Michael Jordan was the greatest competitor of all time. Millions of his fans happily overlook his reputation as a jerk because of the success he achieved. What would people say about Mike if he never won an NBA championship? Would he be in the discussion of greatest of all time if he had the same tenacity, the same grit, the same talent... but he never won?

I use the mindset put forth by Napoleon Hill not to encourage malevalence or ill-will. Rather, I use this quote as a reminder to athletes that, while many small details matter, the end goal is forever unchanged. Don't get so wrapped up in minutia that you lose the bigger picture: Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.