Winning is not enough

A couple of weeks ago, Scottie Scheffler delivered what is now widely considered one of the most introspective speeches in sports history after winning the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. In this now famous speech, Scheffler appeared to be engaging in a deeper search for meaning, deliberating the true meaning of success.

In June, I wrote a post making a case for a spiritual practice as a way to strengthen alignment and drive higher performance for founders. So, Scottie’s speech particularly resonates with where my headspace is right now…

The Philosophy

High performing mission-driven founders who apply themselves relentlessly towards the cause, eventually achieve success only to realize that the mission didn’t deliver the ultimate fulfillment they sought. This place can be devastating. It brutally induces a pursuit of answers to deeper questions such as: what then is true success, have I been wasting my life, am I a fraud, what should I conquer next to find ultimate contentment, what is the true meaning of life… The level to which a founder finds clarity in this space drives her towards deep peace and harmony, or towards further anxiety and chaos.

What Can We Learn From Scottie?

In my last post, I briefly touched on hitting a wall when the adrenaline rush of founding Fairbridge ran out. I will unpack more later. While there’s much bigger success to come from Fairbridge, Scottie’s speech unlocked powerful insight.

1. There’s no alternative to consistent application: Scott found success after applying himself to golf relentlessly since 1999 when he was three and didn’t win his first major until 2022. I continue to learn daily that success comes from a deepening respect for the game.

2. The joys of winning are startlingly ephemeral: It took Scottie just 4 major wins to understand that all that investment of blood, sweat, and tears culminated in fleeting moments of euphoria on the field. That magical feeling of success must be bottled, preserved, and transformed into meaningful rituals of lasting joy. I’d guess for Scott, it’s a process of deep appreciation of the family infrastructure that affords him the privilege to pursue his life’s work. If I closed my eyes, I’d imagine it like this: he spends copious amounts of time away from home training vigorously, he misses his son terribly, is stressed and irritable about an upcoming tournament, and when he wins or loses, he enters moments of joy or pain with his family, reflecting on shared sacrifice…

3. Things that truly matter are immeasurable: The pursuit of standardized societal metrics of success—the next promotion, a higher bonus tier, the new country home—has led many down unexamined paths of success. When they eventually inquire, it might be too late. I was lucky to read Clay Christensen’s book How will you measure your life relatively early in life. It inspired the courage to disembark from this hedonic treadmill.

4. Vulnerability is the ultimate courage: I was impressed by Scott’s courage to share candidly while at peak success and directly into the spotlight. There’s even an article imploring the media to NOT punish him for being honest.

5. Hard priority shifts during transitions are a superpower: Scott’s speech articulated a decisive reordering of priorities. Yes, golf matters, and he definitely wants to win some more. But if golf ever interfered with his family, then he would no longer play. Scott stays winning, but is now winning with what I feel is a profound sense of purpose.

Now What?

I’m in a WhatsApp group with some classmates and discussions of the meaning of life, navigating transitions, and priorities are taking center stage. Sophie Adelman, one of my most successful classmates prepared an excellent list of books that help to answer questions. I’d welcome a chance to discuss any of these topics with mission-driven founders grappling with these matters. This is one of the main reasons I founded Fairbridge.

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Excerpts from Scottie Scheffler’s Speech