They say you need to have a “loser” for someone to win. I think we need to really look deeper at this. When you don’t get enough points on the score clock the other team takes away the medal or the victory. When the sponsor buys a different event or program than yours, we say you “lost the deal”. What bothers me most though is that the exhilaration to winning the Bronze medal at an event far exceeds the glory of the person or team that wins the Silver. The Bronze comes with a win… the Silver comes with a loss.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not one of those people who thinks everyone should get a medal or ribbon at every event. There are properties that do a better sales job or offer better assets than others. There are teams that are just “better”. So, they rightfully so deserve to win. But we need to look at “coming second” differently. We need to look at what we accomplished in getting to that second place (be that in the final round of a tournament or just a regular season game… the big multi-year pitch or the small one-time deal).
Last month in the first elimination round of 32 at FIFA 2026 Men’s World Cup there was an amazing game. It was on Friday July 3. The last day of Round of 32. It was the Argentina – Cape Verde game. My friend Jane Hargraft from The Hargraft Group wrote a great article on this and I wanted to share it with you… her message is real and true.
I watched Argentina play Cape Verde yesterday (futbol!), and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Argentina is a football powerhouse; Cape Verde is a tiny island nation playing in its first-ever World Cup. Regulation ended tied. It took two full periods of extra time before Argentina finally won, 3-2. By the scoreboard, Cape Verde lost.
But I don’t see it that way. They played with everything they had. They met the moment, on the same pitch, against the best in the world, and they didn’t back down for a second. That’s not a loss in my book. That’s what best-in-class performance looks like when the odds are stacked against you.
And it didn’t happen by chance. There’s a saying that luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Cape Verde (and Argentina) prepared for this moment long before the world was watching. When the opportunity finally came, they were ready for it. That’s true on the biggest stage in sport, and it’s just as true in the smallest organization: the teams that show up prepared are the ones who rise to meet whatever moment finds them.
That’s what I love about sporting events – they are exciting for sure, but they also give you a chance to reflect, to recharge, and to think about meeting the moments ahead of us, the way Cape Verde did yesterday.
Jane has it right. Whether you are a behemoth organization or a small town or small non-profit or charity or sport organization, prepare. Preparation is what makes winners and you don’t need to take home the cup to be a winner. Cape Verde was a winner on July 3 just to get to the 32. And to go into overtime like they did… that is gold. But if you and your small organization don’t prepare for a sponsorship program, you will not be winners in any sense of the word. If you don’t have an inventory asset valuation, if you are pitching packages instead of providing solutions, then you will never be a Cape Verde or Argentina. If you think you can do what you have always done and expect different results you need a reality check! The 8 most expensive words in the English language are “but we have always done it that way”! Perhaps you need to make a change to be successful in sponsorship.
If you want to see what successful sponsorship looks like and talk with people who have failed / changed and now with the preparation required are winners, come register for the Western Sponsorship Congress® – Alberta Forum. See you in Edmonton!!
© 2026 All rights reserved.