Why Being a Loser is a Good Thing

Nelson Mandela once said, “I never lose. I either win or learn”. This pretty much sums it up for me. While winning an award is the icing on the cake, not winning presents a great opportunity.

Not winning gives you the opportunity to compare those who were shortlisted with the ultimate award recipient. Think about: what is it about their career, their education, their network and their mentors that have got them to where they are today? I am not talking about comparing yourself to fall short, but rather looking at where you perhaps need to fill out your experience or education in a way that is relevant to your path. The story from my life could illustrate how important is losing. I will try to be brief.

So, let’s start from the beginning. I was born in a small rural town in Orenburg. Right after my first birthday, I got closed in the bathroom and couldn’t get out. My parents tried to make various attempts to get me out of there but to no avail. Then, I made my own attempt, which changed my life forever… That was the first loss in my life.

I didn’t break my hand, as you might think. I pinched it, and now it doesn’t look like any others hands in the world. During my school years, I suffered so much humiliation. I had no friends because everyone was afraid of my hand. So, I was a true loser at school. However, when I was studying in elementary school, my grandparents bought me a lego kit (Mindstorms ev3). Since then, my life had changed forever. I woke at 4 am and carefully sneaked through my parents’ bedroom into my dad’s office where my lego set was kept. I took it from there and returned to my room. I spent almost 6–7 hours building any kind of robot until I found out that there is an opportunity to program it. Oh my god… It took me weeks to understand how to download and set up the software to program my robot. I became passionate about building and constructing everything from it. Finally, in a year, I could persuade my mom to let me go to the robotics club in my town. That was hosted in a university. When I came there, I was in shock. Because I couldn’t find any people of my age. Everyone there was older than me now.

Soon, I participated in a regional robotics competition, where I became an absolute winner. I even got an interview offer, because I was the youngest contestant there ever. Next, I successfully went to the national stage, where I could get a pass to the Worlds. However, I couldn’t get through the qualification round and lost. I think that was the second loss in my life.

I took a 2-year break.

During this time I could successfully get into the best IT school in the nation, where I still study. I got an offer from them after my robotics competitions. During this year, I decided that I have to win and guess what? I won Worlds. I became an absolute winner this year. Nobody could reach the same result as I did. It took me 8 years to achieve my dream. I went through sweat, blood and defeats. I can say with confidence, it was the losses that motivated me to move on. So, don’t be afraid to lose. Be happy when you lose, and use it as an inspiration for your further efforts and actions.