Staying Sharp, Keeping Your Edge

“I gotta hold on to my angst. I preserve it because I need it. It keeps me sharp, on the edge, where I gotta be.”

— Vincent Hanna

I’ve been drawn endlessly back to the question of why serial winners eventually lose. On some level, it’s a silly question. Everyone loses at some point. It’s normal. That doesn’t answer the question, though. Some people, teams, or armies win more than they ought to, statistically. These victories can be explained by many advantages: superior technology, better tactics and strategies, a longer culture of success, luck in crucial moments, and so on. I’m more interested in sustained winning that occurs because of a certain mentality. This might be more myth than fact. We like to think that the power of will can push people beyond what they should be capable of. Often, the explanation is less romantic than that. But let’s romanticise.