Embrace the Lessons of Near Wins: Thriving on the Edge of Success by Sarah Lewis

When we think about success, we often envision hitting the bullseye, winning the gold, or creating the perfect masterpiece. Success, in our minds, is an endpoint, a moment when the world applauds and praises. But what if there’s something just as powerful, if not more, than success itself? When we conceptualize success, we gender it as an end state or a destination where we get to, when we have succeeded. However, Sarah Lewis, a Harvard professor and art historian, in her TED Talk, “Embrace the near win”, makes us view success from a different perspective of the near-wins, when most people fail just by falling short of their goal. These “almost successes,” according to Lewis, fuels the desire to mastery, thereby leading to a lifelong journey of improvement.

Lewis said that she once worked in the Museum of Modern Art undertaking a show of the painter Elizabeth Murray, who once threw one of her works in the bin thinking that it did not meet her standard. It was concluded by Murray as a failure, but was picked up by a neighbor who saw the value in it, which meant that this almost success doesn’t signify failure, instead it motivates to do better. Success, as the same John Lewis describes the phenomenon, is merely hitting a bullseye in single shot, Mastery, however, is about learning how to do something, how to reproduce and improve, and to evolve over time.

Sarah Lewis

Science has lately endorsed the notion with regard to near-wins. It is also revealed that people who finish second, that is, the participants in the Olympic Games who are close to a top place, feels a greater urge to ‘come out again’ in future competitions than those who get a bronze medal. As to this Lewis says that this is because near-wins drags our attention on process, challenging us to bridge the difference between the current and ideal states.

Day by day in life, ‘almost’ success shows us the way forward and offers a pressure to rise and be better. Lewis shows, these failed attempts of getting second-place, are perhaps the definitive way to build a life not just of success, but of meaningful mastery.

We thrive not when we’ve done it all, but when we still have more to do.

-Sarah Lewis

Credits

Razia Khatun

2024-2026