George Foreman knows how it is to lose and lose badly. He guested in the 700 Club after winning the World Heavyweight Championship against Michael Moorer and what he said about losing sort of changed my views. He said that it took him ten years to admit that he lost to a better man, and it was a right hand that did him in. He was laughing when he said that, and you can very well see that he truly was a different man from what he was in 1974 Zaire fight. He knew that people won't listen to him if he preached about God when he returned to the square ring. He waited for the right moment, and what he did after knocking out Moorer, kneeling at the corner to thank God and pray, rather than raising his hands in triumph proved to the world that he really has become a man of God.
Years later, after his second retirement, he was asked how he saw his other losses and he smilingly said - they were not really losses, he just failed to knock them out. Foreman's second coming proved that you are not really a loser if you will just keep on trying. Either you come out swinging back to form or pause for a while as heal your wounds, and then recondition your self that the comeback road is a lot tougher than the first. He knew that ranged against younger and quicker opponents, he has has to double his effort, work harder and hurdle more pains in order to succeed.
Tom Hanks' role as Captain John Miller in the movie " Saving Private Ryan" summed up his losses by convincing himself that for every man he lost under his command, he was able to save some 20 or 25 of them. It was that way of thinking that allowed him to handle his own "private war."
Manny Pacquiao knew that he has to continue fighting the best in his division to be able to bounce back after getting knocked out cold by Torrecampo in 1996, and won his first world title 2 years later. But it was after his second KO loss that really boosted his career jumping 2 weight classes to win his second world title against Ledwaba. He did rested on his laurels, worked even harder, and established a record that would be hard to match winning world titles in 8 weight divisions. The big difference between him and most fighters is that he knew that getting beat up and losing is part of the game, and there is no shame in getting knocked out - for he was loved by boxing afficionados for going all out each time, taking chances, instead of fighting not to lose.
Michael Jordan failed to make the junior high basketball team on his first try, but instead of giving up worked harder and successfully made it the next year. He was always the first to arrive and the last one to leave during practice games. His advice to aspiring athletes : " When you find a wall, find a way to over it if you cannot go around it. I could understand people who fail but never the ones don't even want to try."
In my case, I learned to handle a loss the way a scientist do - each failure is just a lesson learned how not to do things the right way. My failure is my pain and I know I have to pay for the consequences. Conjugal mistake is another thing though, finger pointing won't help, and finding the reasons why at times is more like adding more fuel to the fire. The best way is she is falling from a cliff, and you jump in with her, and hold hands to meet whatever is down there together. There is no better way to grope in the dark when you someone to watch your back.
As the saying goes, marriage is the only gamble in which either both of you win or both of you losses. The best way to be treated like a king is to treat your woman like a queen. And for a man to be proved right, you have to accept that you are wrong, for its always either she is right, or you are wrong. And maybe, aside from the marital vows - for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health, - the priest should also read the Miranda Rights to the groom, that every word he says can be used against him.
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