After being a quarter finalist and awarded fifth best speaker in the junior varsity division at the Illinois state debate tournament, heck, I won a few rounds. Was I successful? I didn’t consider myself to be in the slightest.
The two friends I had been defeated by in the elimination round concluded the opposite; I did better than expected even though I lost my last round.
This dialectic, made me curious about the delineation between the two. They are words that surely everyone has some different setting where they would consider one would be more appropriately used than the other. I just couldn’t place my finger on why, or how. I started with looking them up, to have a base work for each.
To win: “to finish first in a race, contest, or the like”
Success: “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted”
Success is something I desire, what I aim for, my goal. Arguably, most people want to win. They share a similar common aspiration, to be the best. What made this dialectic for me, over interchangeable synonyms, is when your personal desires run deeper than a simple win. I didn’t think I was successful because I felt the wins I had were shallow. I debated teams that were not very good, making a win easy but did not confirm that I had any debate talent myself (these teams were bad, and I wouldn’t just say that). Even though I technically won a few rounds, it was not what I wanted. I wanted to feel like a good debater; that even if the other team was one of the best in the state, I could overcome it all to beat them. What must have made my friends conclude the opposite is I did do better than many kids at the tournament. Not everyone can be a quarterfinalist, only eight teams. I haven’t even done very well this year, meaning I exceeded expectations which were true. I succeeded because I broke, which was what I originally wanted, even though I lost my last round knocking me out from eliminations.
To succeed is to achieve what you want. To win is being better in a round, or event, than the competition. Many times they may reach the same ends, but when they don’t, is what makes us so complex.
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