Quote.2 - Senna
"To win without taking risks is to triumph without glory."
2. Introduction
AHOY!
Ahoy to all the racers constantly switching their gears to achieve that much-needed sweet spot on the engine power curve by increasing RPMs (Revolutions per minute).
Ahoy to all drivers stuck in the cockpit for hitting something on the road and breaking their chassis.
Ahoy to all temporarily retired pilots who forgot they have a sponsored helmet and an F1 racing car in their garage.
Ahoy to the cockpit team, who is waiting cheerfully for another record that ought to be broken.
And finally…
Ahoy to all the engineers in the cockpit waiting for the pilot to stop by to drill those wheels and replace them with a better alternative for rainy days.
Welcome to the second edition of Quote
This is our place to be thoughtful about some of the sentences that great minds from the past have shared.
The second edition wouldn't be less fundamental than the first one. 👇
But before it is about any wisdom from the past, it is also about a topic discussed here on Agency in the past: death. 👇
The person being brought up today was not only the fastest Brazilian who walked (or drove) through the earth (or Interlagos) but also a person who died while doing what he loved the most—breaking the barriers of sound and time with his state-of-the-art engines and bold attitude.
To win without taking risks is to triumph without glory.
Ayrton Senna
“Loved by the daring, by the timid who wished to be daring, by those who dreamed of redemption, and all those who daily balanced on the tightrope, who performed magic to survive.”
Winner of 41 races, three-time world champion, and idol of millions… Ayrton Senna represents a name as much as it is now and for many days to come: an eternal national hero.
"He was in motion all day long—running, rolling, falling into dives, getting up quickly. He didn't stop for a moment. Ayrton was a very lively child. He fell a lot, scraped his knees, and came home with bruises. He had a lot of strength and an absurd amount of energy, and all that energy, that impulsiveness, he channelled into racing." - Testimonial from his wife, Vivianne Senna.
Perhaps to talk about Senna, who died two years before I came to life, isn't a fair endeavour.
Still, if our so dear philosophy is to be considered again, it won't hurt to try to understand the lessons this Brazillian left to the world between the lines of his majestic legacy as an athlete.
As per Leonardo Guzzo's words in the book “Fast as the Wind”… “Ayrton's story is not one to be told, but fairly, one to be sung about.”
Silence is one of the strongest forces in the universe, and we are talking about a person who managed to silence a whole nation on May 1, 1994, when he was leading a rainy race at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy and suffered a fatal accident at the Tamburello corner.
For on that day, Senna and his passion, the speed, made one final act of love, and his lover left him in the ditch while forever eternalizing his superhuman essence into something as timeless, immaculate, immune, and immortal as a god: a memory.
2.1 Winning without taking risks
And why bruising our knees is the most important part of an adventure.
Only one question should be raised for us to start a reflection on this topic.
What does it mean to win?
If winning ought to be the opposite of losing, then can you only win when you don't lose?
Nah.
The loss might be the biggest jackpot one can profit from in a deal.
For in losses, there are lessons, while in winning, only glamour.
Both are concepts that only exist where there is a competition or a sport.
But still, many people insist on reaching for a #1 prize where there shouldn't be a competition.
Open any sacred scripture, and you might find that in the introduction pages: before being One, we must learn to be Zero.
Skipping the infinite amount of decimal numbers between these integers is like getting a certificate without studying.
Whether within teams, the business world, social circles, or even in a family, there's always the possibility of comparison, and when that happens, competition will surge. There's nothing more counterproductive than competing with those you love or those you should be collaborating with.
We already talked about this on Issue.17 👇
True champions, like Senna, never even consider how they perform compared to others; their competition is 99.9% of the time with themselves and 0.01% of the time with the universe. Always pushing towards new limits and failing until failure becomes an impossible coefficient in the mathematical formula of true mastery.
If talent ought to be the fire we steal from Olympus, it can only be found in the same place Olympus exists: within ourselves and our capacity to imagine, not outside or on others.
When you don't understand your limits, it is pointless to try to find the weaknesses of others.
True growth and evolution come when someone becomes a reference and an inspiration, not a competitor or a threat.
You are not a student if you are trying to beat someone somehow. In a classroom, the kids who don't show respect for the professor only do so because they lack the discipline and correction that can only come from those who should love them the most: their parents.
And now the road is clear enough for risk to join the speed of our reflection.
Risk
noun
"the possibility of something bad happening”
Cambridge Dictionary
Because if something can't go wrong, it can't go right either.
In the same way, it wouldn't have been a victory if there hadn't been a possibility of loss.
This is discussed in-depth at The Orange Book of Marketing, below is an excerpt.
To start a business means more than anything taking a risk, financial, emotional and sometimes even legal, but all of these risks can carry a massive type of weight that not every shoulder can carry. When something has a true risk, it means that the problems it generates should be solved in not only a time-sensitive manner but also that it can grow into other problems with other risks. Like receiving the ball from a perfect pass, right in the final match of a soccer tournament - everyone in the stadium, including your team and the crowd, will turn their eyes to you and see what you will do in the face of the challenges you don’t yet know you will face. There’s no such thing as a perfect decision in this context because it regards improvisation and intuition, all your training, all your confidence, and all your willpower utilised in a matter of seconds that will either turn into a bold dribble and courageous attempt for a goal or a quick escape by passing the ball to another teammate.
The Orange Book of Marketing - Chapter II, The New CEO of Your Life
(Available for purchase on the link above.)
Here's a very simple way to put it.
When everything is perfectly comfortable, you are resting or just retired.
When you feel the water reaching your neck, you must swim for your life, using your mind and body to their full capacity.
When a critical problem surges, do you delegate it to who doesn't even know how to manage crisis, stress or anxiety or has never even taken true risks in the past?
Or do you place your bets on the person with the most scratch scars on the knees and the heart?
One does not need to understand about boxing to know that the winner of a fight is the one who can handle more punches before falling.
Frank Herbert says it better in the Dune saga.
“Fear is the mind-killer.”
It can't ever be about hitting the right punches if the main winning criteria is standing on both your feet rather than spending more than 10 seconds dizzy on the ground.
Nevertheless, defence is the most important value behind any martial arts. Learning to fight for violent motives is like punching a wall out of anger: the wrong or outdated tool for the most futile and wrong job.
This is exactly like considering attacking first to surprise an opponent, as Sun Tzu teaches in The Art of War. Enough cobwebs; it's been 2499 years since that book was written.
If you want to learn about war, purchase a gaming computer and get on a Call of Duty lobby, where you are constantly massacred by volatile teenagers who play "war” 24/7; move faster and more boldly than Major Richard Winters on Band of Brothers and know every single move you will make.
The standard stuff is learned through traditional ways.
Serious stuff with life risks, like flying a fighter jet, is learned through simulators.
Even more serious things, those that bear fruits of passion and love, can only be truly learned through mistakes, losses, and sacrifices.
So,
Do you feel ready to embrace more falls, or delegating risks still sounds more comfortable?
2.2 Triumphing without glory
And why it is impossible to lie to ourselves.
You know that popular phrase that goes like: “The end justifies the means"?
Complete bollocks.
Tell me who you are.
Now, tell a major lie to someone.
Now tell me who you are again.
There are now two versions of you that you need to sustain.
Now, keep telling massively different lies to different people.
Now, tell me who you are definitively.
You can't. You will be more fragmented than James MacAvoy's character in the movie Split (Directed by the genius M. Night Shyamalan on a very tight budget.)
My point is only one: you can try lying as much as you want.
But you can't lie to your own consciousness or memory. It follows you wherever you go.
“Dissonance” refers to a lack of harmony or agreement, often in the context of conflicting ideas, opinions, or emotions.
Dissonance with yourself is like being unable to tell people who you are or want to be.
To celebrate victory without having to sweat for it is like playing a character in a theatre play. The act lasts a very short period and is usually done for entertainment purposes - fundamentally different from Senna's legacy, forever carved in history for eternity.
Not as a sacrifice, nor as an error or an accident.
But as someone who knew and loved what he was doing up until his very last second, regardless of the outcomes - because he knew it was something way bigger than himself.
Sitting on a chair that isn’t yours is like driving a car without a driver’s license or even experience. You are putting other people's lives at risk.
Glory, on a counterpoint, is a very similar concept to honour or even merit.
True, tangible, valuable and trustworthy respect can only come from those three pillars; any other source isn't a source, just a shallow placeholder.
For that which is a source is only a source for having a constant efflux (or outflow) of resources, not the opposite.
And that which is glorious is only so because it calls for undeniable admiration or the manufacturing of honest tributes.
Like this one.
May you rest in peace, Mr. Senna.
🏎️ 🏁 🏆
Long story short:
Don't.
Cut.
Corners.
Young.
Padawan.
Face them with the true courage that Ayrton Senna showed the whole world it was possible to cultivate in the heart of an eternal child.
Face them as if the whole world is watching.
Face them as if you will be rewarded regardless if you fail or win.
Face them as if they are your last challenge.
Or your first victory before many others.
The strong are those who, after losing so much, rise again and keep fighting.
- Ayrton Senna
2.3 Movies
A story about persistence.
Can a sitcom teach anything about entrepreneurship?
Silicon Valley is one of those series that you don't know if you love or hate because following Richard Hendricks’ journey in trying to build his startup company (without cutting corners) that would forever change the digital world is like a process of pure torture where you need to watch him fail time after time amidst the challenges that people, the corporate world and the market throws at him.
Does he bend the knee?
Does he achieve victory?
Does he give up on his dreams?
I won't tell; that would be a spoiler!
If you think WinRar is a useful software, you should meet Pied Piper immediately.
