Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

People have always made idols of their actors, musicians, sports stars and military heroes; it's something they wish they could do themselves, so they strive towards those goals with no resentment against the people who have already obtained them, along with the dream of meeting your idol when you finally succeed yourself. There's a lot of romance around being a winner; we give the lucky ones magical names like: titan, marvel, whiz kid, wonderkind, phenom, etc. They get written up in magazines and speak at fundraisers. When they're in town, the local newspaper writes about them. The most attractive thing about winning is the fame.

The desire to become a winner, to get rich & famous through being the best at something, has awkwardly skewed expectations and priorities, causing people to take more risks: “fortune favors the bold,” "bet the farm," "win big or sleep in the streets;” but now with our connected world, to be the best at something means being best-in-the-world, even greatest-of-all-time; that combined with a second-place-is-the-first-loser attitude obviously makes everyone but the very best, losers.