Vancouver Whitecaps FC COO Rachel Lewis remembers when the organization's dream of building a waterfront stadium was scuttled in 2009. At the time, the stadium project was a cornerstone of a plan to bring Major League Soccer (MLS) to Vancouver.
"It's absolutely discouraging and disappointing when you give it your all and you don't get the reward or the outcome that you want," she said. "But I think those are the moments where you recognize that you're probably not at the end of the road."
Lewis said that's a lesson she and the Whitecaps have learned at various points in the club's trajectory, including when it finished last in its first MLS season in 2011.
Lewis said that in business, as in sports, defeat teaches important lessons.
"You want to try to understand, could you have done something differently, so that you don't make the same mistakes twice," she said. "It's no different from the guy who misses an open net on the field and thinks, 'Oh my God, we could have won the game if only I had scored that goal.' You can learn a lot from where you've gone wrong."
Lewis said that, aside from learning from failure, she gains resilience in the face of defeat by focusing on her – and her organization's – mission.
"If you remember what your focus is, if you know what the end-game is, where you want to try and get to, then it's a lot easier to say, 'OK, how are we going to reset course? How are we going to refocus? What should we be doing? How do we overcome those things?'"
Lewis added that experiencing defeat – and coming out the other side – has increased her ability to cope with future challenges.
"I'm a pretty practical person, and it feels like a pretty practical approach to life and business. If you can accept defeat or roadblocks or hurdles with grace and learn from them, you're just going to get better."
