You Lose Because You Think in Wins, Not in Years

The organization with the longest time horizon will always win.

But our culture wants to win right now. We want to be successful in the shortest amount of steps with the least amount of work. More simply, we want to be successful without ever having to do what it takes to truly be successful.

There is a misguided belief that drives this whole misunderstanding: we believe that when we enter into a game, we are opting in for the glory when, in reality, we are doing the opposite.

We are opting into the pain.

Winning (or any way you want to define sustained success) is a byproduct of a long-term developmental process that has inevitable pain points. Development is an infinite game because as soon as you solve one problem, another one arises. The job is getting everyone bought into a long-term vision to collaborate and iterate on its behalf.

And this is not for everyone.

It’s easier to convince ourselves that we are entitled to success. Ego convinces us that we are not just entitled to the glory, but we are above the pain (challenge, adversity, discomfort) inherent to the game. And this misunderstanding (or delusion) only has negative downstream effects, while creating the conditions for our culture’s Development Paradox:

It has never been more difficult to establish a great organization, yet it's the most advantageous time to separate from your competition.

Simply because the majority think in wins, not in years.

Here are 5 ways within our soccer culture where thinking in wins (short-term) has negative long-term downstream effects.

1. Recruitment

The Non-Developer believes their problem is not the vision or their ability to iterate long-term–they believe they don’t have good enough players.

Recruitment becomes the only solution for a Non-Developer. We had an opposing coach from a prestigious MLS academy ask us, “Where did you find that kid?” rather than the more useful question, “How did you develop that player?”. And if recruitment is the main mechanism through which you improve your team, you probably can infer their next question without me stating it…

The difference in the first two questions tells you everything you need to know about thinking in wins versus thinking in years.

2. Leveraging Infrastructure

In 2020, US Soccer decided to stop running the US Soccer Development Academy, which served as the top youth soccer league for MLS and Non-MLS academies.

MLS academies did not fret because, however it shook out, they had the infrastructural leverage of being an MLS academy, so their place in the ecosystem would always be safe because of their attachment to a professional organization. Whereas all the Directors of Non-MLS Academies were in a deep panic because in one instant, the thing that separated them from other youth soccer clubs was gone. Instead of building an organization with a powerful vision and reputation around developing players, their relevance (and financial wins of steady player registrations) were built on an infrastructure they had unique access to, until they didn’t.

Infrastructure can support a developmental vision, but Non-Developers make it THE VISION to ensure a shorter road to wins.

3. The Optics of the Press Release

We are more preoccupied with signaling development than actually developing players.

The best example of this is “the child professional” who is signed from their academy to a homegrown contract. Their signing has little to do with their long-term development and has all to do with showing how great the club is at developing players. It’s easier to create the false narrative of being a Developer than to actually develop a player.

If you look at the trajectory of the homegrown signings your local pro club made the past 10 years, you will see evidence of how they prioritized the win of the press release over the long-term development of the player.

4. Prioritizing Playing Time Over Environment

The majority of soccer parents are more preoccupied with building resumes full of wins than the long-term development of their children.

Without wanting to experience the pain of development, misinformed parents will try to control the process, even when they happen to find themselves in a Developer’s environment. They want assurances, but what they really want is to avoid the pain of watching their kid overcome adversity. Our players are more fragile than ever because their parents want to accumulate bullet points on a resume instead of playing the more painful long-term game of development.

But the pain doesn’t go away; it only accumulates–leaving our players with obstacles that will take them a lifetime to overcome.

5. Self-Reflection

Learning requires four phases: expose, explore, create clarity, and artistry.

The person (coach, director, player, parent) preoccupied with winning never gets to the explore phase because to explore, you must self-reflect. Self-reflection requires introspection and a willingness to investigate the biggest problem, but that is a painful process. The Non-Developer would rather blame the players, the director would rather avoid difficult decisions, the owner would rather fire people than give a process time to bear fruit, and a disruptive parent would rather hop from team to team than trust a coach to do their job.

Our soccer culture doesn’t want to do the self-reflection that development requires–they just want the next win.

Final Words

What's the common denominator of all the problems listed above?

Our egos.

Ego convinces us the shorter route to success is the better route. But the game we are playing is not checkers or chess for that matter. It’s an infinitely more complicated three-dimensional version of chess that requires we think in years, not in wins.

By understanding the pain of development and making decisions based on a longer time horizon, you create and unlock the conditions for sustained success.

By prioritizing winning, you never really win.

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