When my daughter was two and she wanted something, she wanted it immediately. And, when she got it, it was a victory, she won. As we mature we see a win as a victory over somebody or something else. I won the tennis match at the expense of somebody else who lost to me. I win when you lose. And, winning still means now, not later. You haven’t won until you’ve won, so the win is in the present.

A demagogue cares so much about winning that he’d rather wreck the system itself than lose. It’s okay, he believes, to root for the failure of the country or to destroy civility or democracy if it leads to something that could be called a win.

Today, Patricia Karvelas from: The Australian wrote:

MEMBERS of the expert panel on the constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians have been accused by Aboriginal leader Warren Mundine (a former ALP national president) of suggesting those who do not support their far-reaching recommendations are racists.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long before some members of the constitutional panel played the racist card. Their argument rests on the old ‘You’re racist if you don’t agree with me’ line,” he said.

“My advice to those panel members and others who attack Australians as racist is to cease it and let’s have a proper, genuine debate.

“To trivialise the horrendous hate crime of racism by attacking people who disagree with you and use it to silence debate to get your own way is a disgrace…”

But what happens when you define a win as getting closer to someone who wants the same thing? Or when you define it as improvement over time? Or in creating trust?

What if the win is the ability to give a true gift? Are you winning in your business by helping your clients and customers to win?

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