When Winning Tempts You to Cut Corners

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: winning is its own integrity test.

When you’re losing, the temptation is to cut corners to catch up. When you’re winning, the temptation is to cut corners to stay ahead. To protect the lead. To do whatever it takes to keep the success going. To justify small compromises because the results are good.

Both are the same thing. And the winning version is often harder to see.

Read this passage slowly.

Let that sit for a second before you move.

The integrity of the upright guides them. Integrity functions like a compass — it orients you in conditions where the situational pressures would otherwise pull you in directions you shouldn’t go. When the wins are coming and the temptation is to do whatever keeps them coming, the person with integrity has a guide that doesn’t move with the results.

What does corner-cutting look like in a winning environment? It looks like the team that stops preparing with the same rigor because the wins make preparation feel less urgent. It looks like the athlete who gets away with a borderline play and starts using it regularly. It looks like the culture that starts making exceptions for winning players that it wouldn’t make for others. It looks like the standard that was held firmly when things were hard quietly loosening because things are going well.

The character that was built in the hard stretch is being tested in the good one. Whether you hold the same standard when you don’t need to — when the wins are coming and the pressure is off and nobody would notice if you let things slide a little — that’s the real measurement of what was actually built.

Let the integrity guide you. In the hard times and the good ones. The compass doesn’t change based on the record.

This question requires self-awareness during a winning stretch. The answers are often specific and revealing.