The Silver Medal

You guys will be wondering why I named this blog – Silver Medal and not ‘Gold Medal’, ‘On the Top’, ‘My Learnings’, maybe ‘Best of the Best’, or any other name. I want to ask you all one question. Have you guys seen the Olympics or any of the competitive sports championships? I am sure you would have seen it an ample number of times. If you had seen the medal ceremony very closely, you would have observed that the first person who is given the medal is the person who has come third, and he gets the bronze medal. The person is so happy and overwhelmed that he has a sense of pride and achievement that he has made it to the top three and podium finish. He is satisfied that he was better than the people who couldn’t finish achieving any medal and maybe were just short of the efforts he put in to make it to the bronze. Now, let us come to the second person being awarded the medal. He is the hero of my blog. The entry of the hero always comes at the climax, right? So, let us go back to the award ceremony, the person who has come first and is the winner of the Gold medal climbs the tallest spot on the podium and has a sense of achievement, pride, and joy, and with his thumping chest, he takes the Gold Medal and waves to the crowd who cheers for him. He truly deserves all the accolades.

Now we will return to the person who has come second, the hero of my blog, on the podium. From the spectators’ eyes, he has come second, just short of the gold medal, and he is better than the bronze medalist. All the crowd cheers him when his name is announced for the Silver Medal. But the person who is the winner of the Silver Medal is the unhappiest man inside at that moment/point in time. He is not able to enjoy his victory from within. He is sad. Do you know why? Because he always feels that he has not reached the top, i.e. Gold Medal. He has missed the opportunity to be number one. He has not yet come out of the dejection of defeat. He is smiling and accepting the silver medal because he had to show gracious acceptance of defeat. But deep within his heart, he feels sad that he had an opportunity to be on the top but missed it, and that grudge pulls him down. Did anyone know why it is the case with the silver medalist? He has been bestowed the Silver medal because he has “lost” the finale against someone, just missed the championship by a narrow margin, or was “defeated” by a strong opponent.

He is not looking at the bronze medalist who is behind him. He is also not looking at those participants who have yet to make it to the podium, but he only looks at the person standing next to him in the number one position, i.e. gold medalist. That’s where his internal suffering starts.

In our life, we are not able to enjoy the success of where we have reached (financially, socially and spiritually as well at times) because our eyes are always on the people above us who have more wealth or more knowledge or more success or more power than us. The list goes on….. We have a habit of looking at who is on our top or doing better than us and remain dissatisfied. We forget to enjoy the success of where we have reached with much hard work and effort.

We need to acknowledge and admit that the Gold Medalist (super-achievers) have put in more effort than you, we don’t know the personal or professional sacrifice he/she has made to achieve that top position, we have to recognize that may be something was lacking in our efforts to reach that position, we do not know what kind of compromise (health, family, values etc.) that person has done to achieve the top position.

Ultimately that silver medal should motivate you to give your best and not drag you down. It should push you to bring your best to the table and drive you to achieve the top. Silver Medal needs to understand that Game is not over. He/She will get another opportunity to make it to the top, and he/she should be well prepared to learn from his errors and make it to the top.

Now you would realize why Silver Medal or Silver Medalist is close to my heart. In my professional career, for a long time (more than 10 plus years), I have worked as General Manager (Finance / Treasury) or Financial Controller, the second top position in the Finance and Account Department after Chief Financial Officer or Director (Finance). Those (GM Treasury or Financial Controller) were the best years of my professional life. My learning curve was steep; I was at my best, and that role gave me back my lost confidence and showered me with a lovely extended family. Who else than me can know the psyche of a silver medalist?

Most people (not all) who come second or winner of the Silver Medal feel disheartened. They do not enjoy the journey of making it to the podium. Is it the right thing to do? What do you think? How do you see this? Are you able to relate? With this, I am leaving this forum open to get your thoughts and views on the same. Open to you all.