Winning Takes Care of Everything

by Stan Faryna

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Michael Jackson, Man in the Mirror

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There is a small, outspoken minority that are offended by Nike’s celebratory ad of Tiger Wood’s recent PGA triumph as he climbs to No. 1 in Golf.

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Nike’s position on the message,”winning takes care of everything,” is that it’s about Tiger’s game – it is not a tongue in cheek reply to the scandals that dethroned the golfer in 2009. But no one is buying Nike’s official statement. Any controversy actually feeds the hype. And, honestly, who is going to passionately argue that winning doesn’t take care of everything?

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Wisemen say that the ends do not justify the means. But Tiger Woods is not banking on the moral character card – this time around. The star golfer is now all about the win, the comeback, and overcoming a set back. And that’s something we can all get behind.

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That’s not easy for me to say.

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Initially, I wanted to argue the problematic of Nike’s message, winning takes care of everything. That Tiger’s win on the golf course doesn’t overcome his challenges as a man, a father, or a leader. His tens of millions of dollars of annual endorsements doen’t help him to overcome his failures as a human person. It’s a game he’s got to work on off the course and out of the spotlight.

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Because beyond the celebrity and money, Tiger still has to look at the same unfinished man in the mirror. And that is Tiger’s problem – not mine or yours. Each of us have our own unfinished selves to fix.

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Of course, I could be mistaken. But I also could be a little bit right.

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Stan Faryna
27 March 2013
Fairfax, Virginia

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