Finishing in second place is truly heartbreaking.
To come so close to winning, but only to fall at the final hurdle, is the worst feeling ever for a mooter.
Finishing as runners-up often feels worse than bowing out in the early stages. Emotions and adrenaline tend to build up stronger the deeper you advance into the competition. Also, you'll be forever haunted with the memory of letting victory slip away from your grasp at the very last moment.
But such is the cold hard reality of our highly-competitive world. Sometimes, winning is everything. Sometimes, all of the spoils of war go to the victor. Sometimes, if you're not first, you're as good as LAST!
Then again, all is not lost. After all, second place means you're closer to the top than the bottom. There's no shame in silver. It's only an epic failure if you let the heartbreaking loss get into your head. So long as you don't lose sleep, spirit and sanity, you'll be back in better shape than ever.
Recently, the moot teams from University of Malaya (UM) finished as Runners-Up in two competitions: the inaugural KL Bar - Lincoln's Inn Alumni Moot Court Competition and IHL Moot Court Competition.
Just 'minor' competitions in the greater scheme of things. The mooters were mostly juniors, and in their tender years. I wasn't their coach, and trained them sparingly.
I watched the finals. Both were very close affairs. Without labouring too much into the details (and risk sounding like a sore loser), Team UM missed out on victory due to some odd and questionable technical quirks in the rules (another reason, among others, that makes the moot as 'minor').
Nevertheless, a loss is still a loss. In UM, we don't take any loss - big or small - lightly. Processing our loss takes a lot of soul-searching.
Both teams were far from perfect. Mistakes were made, which could have been avoided. Did they perform to the best of their abilities? Of course not! To think so would mean accepting that they were not good enough to win.
At our best, Team UM will always emerge as the best out of the rest. That's where we believe we stand at every competition. To believe otherwise would mean selling ourselves short and setting up for failure even before mooting.
For Team UM, second place is not good enough.
Of course, that's not to say that our non-victorious mooters are losers. Quite the opposite, in fact. They're just getting warmed up. Losing is but a wake-up call to not be cocky and complacent next time.
What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.
Time and time again, we have always come back after a bad loss with a string of victories.
Hell hath no greater fury than Team UM scorned.
For the rest of Malaysia - be afraid, be very afraid...
We will strike back with a vengeance. We will be more ruthless. We will show no quarter.
We're not unbeatable, of course.
But if you beat us once, we'll crush you ten times over...
To come so close to winning, but only to fall at the final hurdle, is the worst feeling ever for a mooter.
Finishing as runners-up often feels worse than bowing out in the early stages. Emotions and adrenaline tend to build up stronger the deeper you advance into the competition. Also, you'll be forever haunted with the memory of letting victory slip away from your grasp at the very last moment.
But such is the cold hard reality of our highly-competitive world. Sometimes, winning is everything. Sometimes, all of the spoils of war go to the victor. Sometimes, if you're not first, you're as good as LAST!
Then again, all is not lost. After all, second place means you're closer to the top than the bottom. There's no shame in silver. It's only an epic failure if you let the heartbreaking loss get into your head. So long as you don't lose sleep, spirit and sanity, you'll be back in better shape than ever.
 |
| Super Juniors |
* * *
Recently, the moot teams from University of Malaya (UM) finished as Runners-Up in two competitions: the inaugural KL Bar - Lincoln's Inn Alumni Moot Court Competition and IHL Moot Court Competition.
Just 'minor' competitions in the greater scheme of things. The mooters were mostly juniors, and in their tender years. I wasn't their coach, and trained them sparingly.
I watched the finals. Both were very close affairs. Without labouring too much into the details (and risk sounding like a sore loser), Team UM missed out on victory due to some odd and questionable technical quirks in the rules (another reason, among others, that makes the moot as 'minor').
Nevertheless, a loss is still a loss. In UM, we don't take any loss - big or small - lightly. Processing our loss takes a lot of soul-searching.
Both teams were far from perfect. Mistakes were made, which could have been avoided. Did they perform to the best of their abilities? Of course not! To think so would mean accepting that they were not good enough to win.
At our best, Team UM will always emerge as the best out of the rest. That's where we believe we stand at every competition. To believe otherwise would mean selling ourselves short and setting up for failure even before mooting.
For Team UM, second place is not good enough.
 |
| They'll be back |
* * *
Of course, that's not to say that our non-victorious mooters are losers. Quite the opposite, in fact. They're just getting warmed up. Losing is but a wake-up call to not be cocky and complacent next time.
What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger.
Time and time again, we have always come back after a bad loss with a string of victories.
Hell hath no greater fury than Team UM scorned.
For the rest of Malaysia - be afraid, be very afraid...
We will strike back with a vengeance. We will be more ruthless. We will show no quarter.
We're not unbeatable, of course.
But if you beat us once, we'll crush you ten times over...
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