Ever since we were little the value of competition has been engrained in us. It is very important that kids learn at a young age that it is okay to strive to be the best. Nowadays, it is becoming popular to award everyone ‘participation’ trophies and today I will explain why this is dangerous for our society. Kids need to be taught that competition is a key part of our society because if children are shown that if you don’t perform as well as someone but still get the same awards, why work hard to become the best? If we took out competition everywhere the world would come to a standstill. The value of competition in society should not be overlooked because it is the structure for our economic system, it creates innovation, and it teaches kids how to be successful.
Without competition no one would strive to be the best, therefore innovation of industry would halt. This interferes with our free market system. This is a key identity of America, the ability of businesses to outcompete each other is what motivates them to give us low prices with the best quality. If you went to a store that was producing goods at uncompetitive levels, they would be put out of business. Competition in the marketplace is what makes sure we are not being taken advantage of. It is essentially Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution at work, the more equipped companies to survive are going to overcome the weak, unsuccessful companies, whether that be because their products are overpriced or outdated.
Believing that everyone should be equal under the government’s eyes is a dangerous mentality. In the past, this mindset is what has allowed dictatorships to take control like what happened in Russia when the Bolsheviks took over which eventually led to one of the world’s worst dictators in the world. Socialism in itself preaches equality for all but what it ends up being is people have zero motivation to be extraordinary. It’s a blow to a person’s morale to have someone reap the benefits from your own hard work.
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Without the value of competition in the US, not only would economic system collapse, but the creativity that fuels inventions would also stop. Companies are constantly striving to make the newest gadget, so they can one-up each other and get our business. Without that striving to be the best nothing would improve. By ingraining in our society that we are all the best the way we are no matter what, people will stop trying to make those improvements.
In an article by Forbes magazine called 10 Reasons Why Work is Good For You, it talks about how competition leads to innovation and by competing against the standard you will achieve not only innovation but creativity and personal growth. Competition in the workplace also ensures the most competent people get skilled jobs. There more experience and skills a person has pertaining to a job gives them a better chance of beating out the competition, which makes more prepared for the job at hand.
By teaching kids from a young age that the effort you put into something doesn’t matter because everyone gets the same reward, their work ethic will be ruined. By teaching kids that if they win a competition by working harder than everyone else, but then give the same award to the kids that didn’t care, we are letting the hardworking kid down.
Simon Sinek, an author, and a motivational speaker spoke about this during an interview that went viral on YouTube which touched on why millennials aren’t successful in the workplace. He brings up the point that by parents teaching their kids that they are special no matter what, and if they are given awards for losing, it hurts everyone involved. The kid who deserved to win is going to stop trying because he got the same recognition as someone who could not care less. And on the other side, by giving a kid a trophy for losing he is not going to be motivated to get any better, as well as feel embarrassed for getting the recognition that they lost.
There might be some embarrassment in losing, but not nearly as humiliating as being praised for failing. We need healthy competition, so kids know that life is not completely fair and that is okay. If you work harder than everyone else and are better than everyone else, you will be rewarded as such. This is the way it has always been. If you were a farmer and you take really good care of your crop, it will be worth more than someone who took bad care of their crop. It is important that kids know that from a young age, so they have the motivation to be the best they can.
This new wave of kids getting participation trophies and not keeping score in a competitive sporting event is hurting them in the long run. Losing can be the best motivator for a kid, and they need to able to learn how to accept it, and how to let that fuel them to work harder and be better. The fear is, that this new generation, that is being raised without competition, without ever hearing they must work to be the best, is going to move out of school and into the workforce expecting jobs to be handed to them. Or when they get jobs not understanding why they aren’t getting a promotion or moving up in their industry.
Kids need to be taught to fight for what they want. Parents are afraid that by having winners and losers they are humiliating the losers but learning how to deal with loss is a big part of growing up. There’s a reason why being a ‘sore loser’ is associated with being ‘a baby’ when it comes to inappropriate coping with losing. Grown-ups can’t call their mom to fix things when life doesn’t go there way. Life teaches you to deal with upset and heartbreak by using the coping mechanisms your learn when you are younger.
I think that learning to lose in sports at a young age is a huge influence on my work ethic. All of my life I was in competitive sports. It taught me responsibility, every young athlete knows the pain of dragging of yourself to practice when every part of your being doesn’t want to. This perseverance against my own inner laziness is what I remember when I complete an assignment I really don’t want to do, or in the future when I go to work when I don’t want to. My parents never let me settle for mediocrity and to strive to be the best. Even if you do lose knowing that you tried your bet helps you deal with that loss.
It drives you to pick yourself up and keep going. As young adults, we heavily rely on the habits we learned when we were young. Especially in college when it is up to us to get up and go to class. The healthy competition in sports taught me that losing was unacceptable and I should do everything I could to avoid it. Just like in school, failing is intolerable and to avoid that going to class and doing my homework. Trophies were not handed to me, it was because I earned it. That is why it is so dangerous to hand children a participation trophy. Competition is a vital part of society, it’s all around us.
Losing is a feeling everyone knows and works their hardest to avoid. It’s not fun, that is why it motivates kids to be the best that they can be, that is why kids work hard to get into schools like Cal Poly. To be successful in life it takes hard work and a tough shell. It’s vital that while kids are growing they do everything in their power to set them up for success later in life.
That’s why kids stress out so much about college, a good education is just another tool they can use to set them up for success. We cannot strip this value from the younger generations, that is why this new wave coddling and sparing feelings needs to stop. Fulfillment in life is not how much money you have, it’s the love and the accomplishment you have in yourself.
Competition isn’t just about beating someone else, it’s about knowing you did everything you could to be successful. Part of being self-sufficient is being self-motivated to try your best and to keep going if you’re not at first. Perseverance is a big part of being a real adult and with every defeat I experience is making me an even stronger individual and this mindset helps to navigate this strange life.
