There is a difference between losing and being a loser — and the best leaders never confuse the two. Our own Jake Schrum was recently featured in eCampus News reflecting on a lesson he learned as a teenager, tagging along with his father to cattle shows across Texas. At every show, ribbons went to the Grand Champion, the Reserve Champion, first place, second place — but no entrant, his father made sure he understood, was ever a loser.
Schrum extends that same lesson to leadership today. In a culture obsessed with sorting people into winners and losers, the leaders who last are the ones who hold onto a deeper conviction: the worth and dignity of every person, distinguished from any single outcome. Losing a search, a vote, a funding round, or a difficult year does not make an institution — or the person leading it — a loser. What separates genuine leaders from the rest is knowing that difference, and living like it’s true.
