Are you Hunt or Lauda?

After having spent another night watching “Rush” on HBO, I have just started thinking about how the fight between James Hunt and Niki Lauda for the F1 1976 championship could be a sort of metaphor of what almost everybody has lived at least once in a lifetime: the fear to win.

That is kind of a sensation which brings you in particular moment of your life, your work, it is unpredictable and most of all it is unexpected and very hard to understand. But it is true, all of us have experienced that.

Ok but, why?

It is not only coming from the opposite, the fear to lose. The fear to win may have many causes but all result in just one effect.

First, when you win, you change, and change is something which is really scary for most of the people. Uncertainty, unknown, short sight, call is the way you want, but it is just the fact that you doubt yourself when you win, especially when that is not something you are used to.

Then, you feel under the spotlight when you win. And this is often uncomfortable, because it requires you to win again, and put even more effort, more strength, more energy. Yes, winning is difficult indeed and winning twice is three times difficult. Why not cutting it off from the very beginning?

Your foes (external or internal, real or fictitious, weak or strong) when they you win, become even more aggressive. And, will you be prepared to fight them again in the future? Maybe your win was due to luck, circumstances, and their mistakes. But the next time it will be different because they will have no mercy, and you will have nothing and nobody to rely upon but yourself.

Last but not least, a wonderful excuse. What Niki (who, by the way, has been my childhood hero) chose was read as an easy escape, an excuse not to admit that Hunt was the best and he was simply the second.

But as a matter of fact, against all odds he decided to loose, which is actually a step beyond not to win. It implies courage instead of fear, bravery instead of cowardice, vision instead of short sight. And self-confidence, because when you throw a victory away you become a looser, unless you win afterwards.

Winning or losing may mean many things and may depend on many more. To me, it does not really matter if you win or lose. What matters the most is making up your mind with pride, courage, both instinct and reason, following that decision thoroughly and actively but being ready to change when something occurs and the new context modifies the rules of engagement.

 

At the end of the story James Hunt (r.i.p.) was the real looser. After the ’76 final GP in Japan he decided to exit the competition, destroy himself and become a lazy drunk ex-pilot. I was just a kid when all the people around me were hoping to have him driving for Ferrari and replace Lauda. It was just my dad and me who thought differently.

I am often still scarred by the chance to win. Then I think of James and Niki, and the sky gets a little bit clearer.