Being an early bird who lives on the East Coast I don’t stay up for most UFC events, but this morning I woke up for the 3rd time in a few years to an image of Connor McGregor sitting up against the fence in defeat.
Unfortunately, after watching a few videos I got to see how a fighter I once admired dealt with defeat as he hurled insults at his victorious opponent.
Here is what I came to realize: behavior like Connor’s (or the Paul brothers) isn’t for long term games. Yes, the flash and the smack talk will draw a crowd, but how long can you keep that up without evolving? How will tripling down on that image impact your other long term games?
As Jordan Peterson writes in Beyond Order, “Life is not simply a game, but a series of games, each of which has something in common and something unique…The best player is therefore not the winner of any given game, but among many other things, he or she who is invited by the largest number of others to play the most extensive series of games.”
The media loves to hype the shooting star, but I’m a fan of the grinder – the person playing long term games and ends up rich, not just in money, but in all the other ways that matter.
“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold.”
Proverbs 22:1
