Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: fella Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode seven eighty five. I want to share a
Speaker 2: quote with you that stopped me in my tracks. After
Speaker 2: Norway was eliminated from the twenty twenty six FIFA World Cup,
Speaker 2: Arling Holland stood in front of reporters and said this,
Speaker 2: in life, everything is a win when experience is the goal.
Speaker 2: Think about that for a moment. Not everything is a
Speaker 2: win when the scoreboard says you won. Not everything is
Speaker 2: a win when you get promoted. Not everything is a
Speaker 2: win when you hit your sales target. Not everything is
Speaker 2: a win when your organization breaks another record. Sometimes the
Speaker 2: biggest win comes when none of those things happen. Sometimes
Speaker 2: the greatest trophy you earn is something nobody can put
Speaker 2: in a display case experience. That statement completely changes how
Speaker 2: we should think about leadership. Too many leaders define success
Speaker 2: with outcomes. Did we hit the numbers, did we finish first,
Speaker 2: did we get the contract, did we beat the competition?
Speaker 2: Those things matter, They always will. The problem starts when
Speaker 2: an outcomes become the only scoreboard that counts, Because if
Speaker 2: every setback becomes a loss, people eventually stop taking risks.
Speaker 2: They stop volunteering, they stop trying new ideas, they stop
Speaker 2: speaking up. They play defense instead of offense. Great organizations
Speaker 2: don't eliminate failure. They eliminate the fear of failure. Every
Speaker 2: experienced leader listening today knows this. Your career wasn't built
Speaker 2: from a perfect record. It was built from thousands of
Speaker 2: moments where something didn't go according to plan. As a paramedic,
Speaker 2: I've walked out of calls wishing I could replay every decision.
Speaker 2: As a pilot, I've landed and immediately started critiquing my
Speaker 2: own flight, not because anything went wrong, because experience is
Speaker 2: the greatest instructor you'll ever have. The cockpit teaches you
Speaker 2: to debrief, Emergency services teaches you to debrief, The military
Speaker 2: teaches you to debrief. Elite sports teach you to debrief.
Speaker 2: Leadership should do the same. Instead of asking did we win?
Speaker 2: Ask what did we learn? That's a much more valuable conversation.
Speaker 2: Here's something I've noticed. The best leaders I know don't
Speaker 2: waste much time protecting their ego. They're busy protecting the lesson.
Speaker 2: That's a huge difference. Ego says, don't let anybody know
Speaker 2: you made a mistake. Experience says, let's make sure nobody
Speaker 2: has to repeat it. One creates fear, the other creates growth. Now,
Speaker 2: imagine if your organization became known as the place where
Speaker 2: learning happened faster than anywhere else. Employees wouldn't be afraid
Speaker 2: to innovate, Managers wouldn't hide problems. Teams wouldn't spend meetings
Speaker 2: pointing fingers. They'd spend meetings collecting experience. That changes everything.
Speaker 2: And I also think this quote explains why some people
Speaker 2: plateau in leadership. They worked somewhere for twenty years, they
Speaker 2: held the same title, they attended every meeting, They've collected
Speaker 2: plenty of time. Time isn't experience. Reflection creates experience. Two
Speaker 2: people can live through the the exact same event. One
Speaker 2: walks away older, the other walks away wiser. The difference
Speaker 2: is what they chose to do with what happened. I
Speaker 2: want you to think back to your own career. The
Speaker 2: difficult boss, the impossible customer, the failed interview, the project,
Speaker 2: the crash, the employee who quit, or the promotion you
Speaker 2: didn't receive. At the time, those moments probably felt like losses.
Speaker 2: Looking back today, many of them became turning points. You
Speaker 2: became more patient, more observant, more resilient, more prepared. The
Speaker 2: event didn't make you stronger, The experience did. That's why
Speaker 2: leadership isn't about avoiding disappointment. It's about extracting value from disappointment.
Speaker 2: And there's another lesson hidden inside Holland's quote. Notice he
Speaker 2: said everything is a win. Everything not so everything that
Speaker 2: means criticism can become a win. Failure can become a win,
Speaker 2: rejection can become a win. Starting over can become a win.
Speaker 2: The only requirement is deciding that experience is the objective.
Speaker 2: I've always believed leadership is one long apprenticeship. None of
Speaker 2: us graduates. We're constantly adding pages to a notebook that
Speaker 2: no one else can write for us. Every conversation, every conflict,
Speaker 2: every success, every mistake, every difficult decision, they're all adding
Speaker 2: another page. The question isn't whether life is teaching you.
Speaker 2: Life is teaching you every single day. The question is
Speaker 2: whether you're paying attention. That's why I encourage leaders to
Speaker 2: keep some kind of leadership journal. Write down what happened,
Speaker 2: write down what surprised you, Write down what you wish
Speaker 2: you would have handled differently. Over time, you'll build something
Speaker 2: more valuable than a resume. You'll build wisdom. Wisdom doesn't
Speaker 2: come from collecting birthdays. It comes from collecting experiences and
Speaker 2: refusing to waste them. So the next time your team
Speaker 2: falls short of a goal, don't rush to declare failure.
Speaker 2: Ask better questions. What surprised us, what did we overlook?
Speaker 2: What will we never do again? What will we absolutely repeat?
Speaker 2: Those questions transform disappointment into momentum. Every championship team review
Speaker 2: reviews game film, every airline investigates incidents. Every successful business
Speaker 2: studies its setbacks. Leadership deserves the same discipline. So today
Speaker 2: I want to leave you with this challenge. Redefine what
Speaker 2: winning means. Celebrate the victories, absolutely raise the trophy, enjoy
Speaker 2: the moment. At the same time, don't overlook the invisible trophies,
Speaker 2: the lessons, the perspective, the confidence, the maturity, the judgment
Speaker 2: that only experience can provide, Because one day you'll discover
Speaker 2: something remarkable. The experiences you once wished had never happened
Speaker 2: became the very things that made you the leader people
Speaker 2: trust today. So as you head into your next meeting,
Speaker 2: your next project, or your next difficult conversation, remember Irling
Speaker 2: Holland's words in life, everything is a win when experience
Speaker 2: is the goal. If you make experience your objective, you'll
Speaker 2: discover that very few days are ever wasted. And if
Speaker 2: you want more free leadership resources, head over to Paulalito
Speaker 2: dot com and click on free Stuff. I have over
Speaker 2: twenty five free leadership documents you can download and start
Speaker 2: using today. This has been the seven minute Leadership podcast
Speaker 2: and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fello Alito podcasts, visit Paulfellowalito dot com