Lessons from losing will win a state title

By David Tepera, February 19, 2020

One of the hardest acceptances in life is from losing. We never set out on a challenge expecting defeat.

Back in the 1990s, as an assistant football coach for the La Marque Cougars, we lost the state championship game two years in a row to the Stephenville Yellowjackets. That was a hard pill to swallow. Not only that, as coaches, keeping the next round of players excited and amped to give their best each season had some challenges.

I have to give credit to then-head coach Allen Weddell because he was a master of planning. He built a championship program that never faulted. He knew how to get the best out of players and coaches.

In case you didn’t know, after those two losses, we went on to win the next three state championships over Denison. That is called” lessons from losing.”

What about you? Have you learned lessons from other areas of life? How many diets have you failed? Are you a better spouse the second time around from a previous failed marriage? Did you lose the promotion to a coworker? I know families who’ve lost some serious money from court battles because they wouldn’t mediate.

Just know, it’s OK to fail in certain areas of life. Throughout my adulthood, I had several startup businesses. Even though they all started out strong, at some point, they failed for various reasons.

Instead of giving up, I learned to lick my wounds and keep pursuing a state championship in business. Of course, this path led me to my wife Tina, to which we built the Ageless Muscle fitness center.

If you truly want to learn from losses, write out each failure, along with reasons why it failed and what changes are necessary to succeed. These are lessons I share with my adult children, especially since they are involved with our family business.

Whatever your failures and losses seem to be at this time, don’t let that stop or slow you down from getting back out in this world. We all have a unique set of skills, and there’s people who need your services.

Stay true to your character, keep away from negative people, learn from losses because it’s your time to win a state championship.