You're Number One!!

You're Number One!

In 1998 I watched a title fight between the world welterweight champion, Oscar De La Hoya and the European champion, Patrick Charpentier.

Charpentier's story was absolutely incredible. He was the hero of a small town in france where he excelled at everything, from athletics to academics, to the arts. He enjoyed a spectacular boxing career which included 25 wins, 23 of which came from knock out. In short, he was the best at just about everything he ever tried to do. It sounded to me like this was going to be quite a fight. Then, the sportscasters started discussing Charpentier's chances.

They all agreed, Patrick Charpentier, the undefeated European champion, would be lucky to make it five rounds against De La Hoya.

He wasn't lucky. He got knocked out in three.

Imagine what it must have been like to be Charpentier, to have gone your whole life without ever encountering anyone who can remotely compete with you and then, to come across someone who is so far beyond you that nobody even gives you a chance.

One moment you are number one, the next moment, you are over.

We're all raised with it to one degree or another. Get the top grade on the quiz, land the best job, score the touchdown, win the election. In other words be the best.

The truth is, it’s an incredible motivator.

Nobody fantasizes about coming in second at the race, or living in the third biggest house on the block. We don't tell stories about losers, flock to movies about the galaxy’s most mediocre warrior or read comic books about sort-of-super-heroes.

Like moths to a flame we are drawn to the best and brightest all the time desperately hoping that someday we will be the flame and the world will be drawn to us.

It's never really been easy to be number one, but in the twenty-first century it has become much, much harder.

There was a time when 80% of the worlds population lived in small towns, without mass media. That meant that we interacted with a relatively small selection of people.

So, if you were the best fiddle player in town, the odds were, you were the best fiddle player anyone you knew had ever seen. Sure, one of your neighbors might have gone to the big city and heard a real professional, but that didn't change the fact that you were the star of every square dance and wedding. You were number one.

The same was true if you were the best fighter, baker, or public speaker. So, in a town of 50 or 100 there were enough slots for almost every body to be the best at something (or at least pretty close)

Today, however, as you practice your scales you are just an ipod away from the talents of Itzhak Perlman or Yo Yo Ma. You've seen Ali Fight and Batalli cook. You've heard speeches from Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy.

Suddenly, you're not just competing with the best the world has to offer today, but the best in history.

In other words, the odds of being number one have become almost impossibly remote.

But, "So what?", you say. "A slim chance is better than none and somebody's got to be at the top, right?"

Well, sort of...

Take a look at the big movie stars, top athletes, businessmen and politicians. Even if you name the biggest of all time, their moment in the spotlight is short and often fraught with controversy.

Orson Welles, who made what many consider to be the greatest movie of all time, Citizen Kane, was essentially banished from Hollywood and spent the rest of his life in a desperate attempt to get his movies financed.

Mohamed Ali, arguably the greatest heavyweight champion of all time, stayed far too long in the ring, and succumbed to beating after embarrassing beating before retiring at the age of 39. A decade after destroying Charpentier, Oscar De La Hoya was living out the same story.

Or look at the number one of number ones, the most powerful figure in the modern world, the President of the United States. Surely the few dozen men who have achieved this almost impossible goal must feel justifiably satisfied with their success. Unfortunately, the real trouble for a president doesn't end with taking the oath. It begins. He will be ridiculed in every paper and late night talk show. Every decision he makes, every word he says, every bite he eats and every first pitch he throws will be analyzed relentlessly and criticized mercilessly. And no matter how, effective his performance, no matter how dedicated he is to his patriotic duty, a large portion of the population will despise him and dedicate all of their efforts to removing him from office.

Do you still want to be number one?

When I was a kid I was fascinated by the "great" men of the past. Caesar and Alexander. Napoleon and Genghis Kahn. These men were brilliant, disciplined and charismatic. They inspired undying loyalty and conquered the known world with their genius. At the height of their powers, and with the technology of their time, a journey from one end of their domain to the other would take months or even years.

Think about that. Genghis Kahn conquered an area so vast that it was physically impossible for him to even see it all in his lifetime.

So, what the hell did he do it for?

All the destruction, all the death, all the terror...

What benefit is it to them? How many jewels can they hold? How many women can they sleep with? How many great meals can they eat?

Why would anyone want to conquer the world? What’s the point?

The point is to be number one.

The moment Alexander conquered one land he moved on to conquer the next. Nothing satisfied because the desire to be the greatest of all time was the motivating force. It drove him on a journey of death and destruction, thousands of miles away from his home, where he died at the age of 32.

And what of the conquerors of today? The people who quest not with swords and shields, but with stock options and leveraged buyouts. The ones who put our planet under the lash, destroying it’s forest and its oceans with little care for the consequences.

There are those in this world who have amassed more wealth than they or their children or their children’s children could ever spend in a hundred lifetimes and yet they still want more.

Why?

Because the only way to play the game is to win and the only thing they want to be when the game is over, is number one.

But the reality is, the only thing you are when the game is over, is dead.

Don’t get me wrong, the pursuit of excellence, the determination to improve yourself and your situation is good. It gives you a sense of purpose. It drives you to excel in ways you might never have thought possible and it yields benefits not just to you, your family and your community but often to the entire planet.

However, the blind, obsessive race to occupy some impossible, pinnacle of achievement has loosed tremendous destruction on the world and those few souls who manage to make it to “number one” find little solace in an accomplishment which is at once lonely and disappointing.