The Lesson from the ‘Loser Horse’

Great Loser Horse

There is a racehorse in Korea, named Charming Girl, but she goes by the nickname, Loser Horse. This nickname, however, contradicts with her original name.The reason why Charming Girl was tagged with the nickname, Loser Horse, is that for 6 years, since her debut in 2008, she couldn’t win at all—not even a single race out of the 101 races that she had competed in.

However, as the number of her losses increased, interestingly, the attention and interest of the horse racing fans towards her also increased. Despite losing every time, she gave it her all when running each race and didn’t miss any of the competitions. As such, people were moved by her attitude and were motivated to also start pursuing hopes and dreams for themselves.  

Normally, a race horse competes every one-and-a-half months, but Charming Girl often raced twice a month, so she actually ran more twice as diligently as other racehorses. In fact, at 101 competitions, she holds the record for running the most horse races in all of Korea. She is the horse that ran till the end, giving it her best until her career as a racehorse ended. The Loser Horse drew people’s attention by establishing records for  the longest losing streak and the highest participation rate among all racehorses. Although she retired without winning even a single race, she became an inspiration for the children’s book, The Great Loser Horse, and she remains as a truly great horse in everyone’s heart.  

The Secrets to Success of Two People 

In 2014, much limelight fell upon Nobel Prize winner, Shuji Nakamura, the inventor of the blue LED. The best research centers and major companies in the world studied to invent the blue LED for nearly 30 years but to no avail. People concluded that it would be impossible to invent it within this century, but in only four short years, a Japanese researcher from a minor company succeeded in doing so on his own. The world was in great shock.

How was this fellow, who only graduated from an obscure local college in Japan and was an employee of a small company, able to reach the highest rank on a worldwide scale?

Everybody had given up on this challenge and he also faced failure more than 500 times. However, not giving up until the end was what ultimately led him to such great success, despite the many failed attempts. 

“It’s not those who are in first place, but those who strive until the end who will change the world. If you turn back simply because you’ve hit a wall, you’ll never be able to break through the wall.” - From Nakamura’s book, the Power of Doing Things Until the End.

The executive chairman of Alibaba Group, Ma Yun (or Jack Ma), scored only one point on the math portion of his college entrance exam, so he couldn’t get into college. He later had an interview for a part-time job but was rejected due to his skinny and unattractive appearance. He has failed several times at establishing companies, has tasted the bitter cup from being a rookie businessman, has suffered substantial loss from expanding companies abroad, has been a victim of fraud at the hands of his employees and has failed around 40 times to catch the eye of investors. If he had decided to give up even once during any of these difficulties, we wouldn’t be able to see the company, Alibaba, which makes 16.5 billion dollars per day, nor would we come to know Ma Yun, who is the 15th richest man in the world.

A person who is faithful to the point of death is a person who does things 

until the end

The Biblical scripture, “Be faithful, even to the point of death,” can be interpreted in two ways: it can be interpreted as Be faithful with all your might or it can be interpreted as Be faithful, even until the moment that you die, that is, until the end. In light of two English translations of the Bible (“to the point of death” in NIV and “unto death” in KJV), taking action until the moment of death, until the end is what is emphasized.  

In the book of Revelation, it says that the Lord who is coming will come riding on a white horse. This white horse might not be an excellent horse that wins 100% of all races, but may be a Loser Horse that will get back up again and again, even if it is defeated 100 times and even if its body is wounded from all those defeats. In spite of everything, it will continue to enter the battlefield, with the Lord on its back and will be with ‘him until the end.’  

  It’s true that achieving first place isn’t easy, but there will always be a first place winner. On the other hand, it is much more difficult to become someone great. We should not fall into the misconception that only those who obtain first place are great. The world is a place that is transformed by those who become great through persevering until the end without giving up, and not by those who simply come in first place.