WINNING

Last week, Steve Davis, an esteemed senior cyclist, gave a talk on winning to the members of Darlington Business Club. During his presentation he showed us his collection of World Masters’ medals as well as referring to a quotation by Vince Lombardi, the American football coach, which he had taken to heart and made his own.

“Winning is not a sometime thing, it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do things right all the time.” However, our speaker had then added to this: “There is no room for second place. There is only one place and that’s first place.”

This is a belief and way of life that leads to success whether it’s on the track or in the boardroom. However, it probably doesn’t translate too well in domestic situations. As a family lawyer, I couldn’t help but think that for my own clients it is not a useful mantra. Divorce is no place for the “I don’t just need to win, I have to be seen to win” mentality, especially when frequently it is exactly that attitude that can cause a marriage to breakdown in the first place. So let’s leave winning where it belongs, in the competitive worlds of sport and business.