It's ok to lose

A colleague gave my son a DVD for the movie Cars. Although it's a kid show, man, I learnt the most important lesson in my whole career from this!

In the corporate world, people only care about winning, about being number one. Cars tells the story of a racing car called Lightning McQueen wanting to win a prestigious racing competition. But in a strange twist of event, he got lost in a "dead" town and was forced to serve in a community service but he learnt life's most basic lessons: love and friendship. In the wilderness, he was doing what he hated but found that the found new friends from the town who really cared for him.

Everyday, he yearns to leave the town to go back to the racing track. He finally managed to race and he was at the very verge of winning, when he stopped right before the finishing line to reverse his car to help another car which was spun off track. Having the golden chance of being number one, he gave it up, to be number three to win a friend. What a lesson!

Sometimes, being in the corporate we think we are so smart to go up the ladder while pushing other people down. We lose friends, gain enemies, put up falsehood and fake facts to paint a rosy picture to others. Is it worth it? Well, our bank accounts may grow exponentially but not our character. So next time you want to claim credit for someone else's work or put a colleague down, think about the lessons from Cars.