An alternative view is articulated by Jack and Suzy Welch, in their book, Winning:

“I think winning is great. Not good—great. Winning in business is great because when companies win, people thrive and grow. There are more jobs and opportunities everywhere and for everyone. People feel upbeat about the future; they have the resources to send their kids to college, get better health care, buy vacation homes, and secure a comfortable retirement. And winning affords them the opportunity to give back to society in hugely important ways beyond paying more taxes. . . . Winning lifts everyone it touches—it just makes the world a better place. When companies are losing, on the other hand, everyone takes a hit. People feel scared. They have less financial security and limited time or money to do anything for anyone else. All they do is worry and upset their families, and in the meantime, if they’re out of work, they pay little, if any taxes.” 1/

There are several reasons why a focus on the achievement of instrumental goals like money, prestige, prizes, or winning per se is unlikely to be the subject of sustained enthusiastic commitment.
One is pragmatic. It is an intractable fact of human nature that most people find it difficult to remain genuinely enthusiastic for a sustained period of time about primarily instrumental goals. When everything is done for the sake of something else and nothing is done for its own sake, then purpose is obliterated. When purpose is obliterated, life loses its meaning. When meaning dies, energy fades and enthusiasm dies.

Instrumental goals like winning are fundamentally about acquiring the title of “winner” as accorded by other people. When people spend their lives trying to elicit such decisions from other people rather than doing what they themselves believe is worthwhile, they end up as prisoners of other people’s opinions. With no genuine views of their own, they have little to be enthusiastic about.

Moreover, it isn’t true that winning lifts everyone it touches. Wherever there are winners, there are by definition also losers—usually many more than winners. As a result, winning is necessarily an aspect of win-lose activities. This is because external goals like money, status, prestige, and the title of “winner” are finite resources, and are governed by a win-lose dynamic. If A wins, B loses. If C becomes famous, everyone else is less so. If D is president, no one else can be president at that time.

In the world of instrumental goals, truly win-win outcomes are rare, perhaps nonexistent. Even having money is not so much about the absolute fact of having money—it’s about having more money than other people. In such zero-sum games, the inherent worth of the activity is often subordinated to the goal of getting ahead of others, and to doing whatever is necessary to achieve victory. When that happens, one has entered a rat race: the activity shifts from inspiring to deadening, from fun to dull, from energizing to burdensome: it becomes mere work.

By contrast, when activities are pursued for their own sake, innovations that any one individual makes tend to be shared with others and so everyone benefits. An advance by one helps all. The dynamic is inherently win-win.

Finally, the suggestion that those who focus primarily on winning will eventually get around to doing something worthwhile in itself, such as “give back to society,” has meager evidence to support it. Even if we set aside the inevitability of a large group of “losers” who by definition accompany the “winners” and who won’t have anything to give back to society, the reality is that winning as a primary goal becomes a drug. Because winning doesn’t satisfy in itself, people need more of it to keep going. Hence people who devote their life primarily to winning usually never get round to doing anything worthwhile in itself. Instead, they find themselves on their deathbeds, wondering where their lives went.

Steve Denning is one of the individuals who shares all his Public Speaking tips and techniques as part of The Great Successful People Package.