One of a fighter’s greatest and most difficult tasks is dealing with fear. I always get nervous before fights and at the beginning of my fight career I rejected... - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

https://8limbsus.com/muay-thai-thailand/fighters-fear-like-feathers-stroking-face-how-to-accept-it

Winners are not created in a vacuum, after all. There are countless variables operating, most of which go unnoticed by the viewer. Of these factors, the value of losing is perhaps most often overlooked.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1974900-mma-psychology-the-psychology-of-losing-in-mixed-martial-arts

"...this is exactly the most pitiful aspect of tyranny. It is impossible to let go of it.”

Hiero, or "The Tyrant" - A Discourse on Despotic Rule, by Xenophon: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1175/1175-h/1175-h.htm

Anabasis, by Xenophon: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1170/1170-h/1170-h.htm

Because every once in a while, somebody brings me my lunch tray and my meds and he has a black eye or his forehead is swollen with stitches, and he says: "We miss you Mr. Durden."

It should be a furnace in which steel is forged. Ideally, it’s also a family to celebrate with.

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.” Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club 

How is freedom measured in individuals and peoples? According to the resistance which must be overcome, according to the exertion required, to remain on top. The highest type of free men should be sought where the highest resistance is constantly overcome: five steps from tyranny, close to the threshold of the danger of servitude. - Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

The idea is to take some Joe on the street who's never been in a fight and recruit him. Let him experience winning for the first time in his life. Get him to explode. Give him permission to beat the crap out of you. You can take it. If you win, you screwed up.

Nietzsche’s nightmare – the rise of the untermensch, a world ruled by mediocrity:https://angrytunbridgewells.com/2015/04/01/nietzsches-nightmare-the-rise-of-the-untermensch-a-world-ruled-by-mediocrity/

Let us beware of waking the dead and disturbing these living coffins! 

Trophies are placeholders, participation awards are pointless, and losses are lessons.