It was a fantastic game. Duke was seated number one and John's Hopkins was seated number 3. Throughout the first half of the game the Blue Jays had a sizeable lead. I believe going into halftime John"s Hopkins was up by 6 goals.
In the third quarter Duke battle back with 5 unanswered goals and brought the score to within one point by holding the Blue Jay's scoreless.
Looked like we were in for one heck of a fourth quarter battle and we were. The Blue Jays scored a quick goal putting them up by two and then Duke answered back with a goal of their own.
The score was 11 to 10 with John's Hopkins up going into the final seconds, Duke had the ball and an excellent opportunity to score. They took a great shot, but the Blue Jays goalie made a great save to seal the victory.
I must say being an ex high school lacrosse goalie that John's Hopkin's goal was legitimately one of the best I'd ever seen. The guy was fantastic.
A great game, not the outcome I was looking for, but none the less a great battle on the field and an effort both sides can be truly proud of.
But let's be honest . . . Duke lost. And as I sat in the Duke fan section of the stadium with many of my old friends from school who played lacrosse during my time in college I could tell they were truly deflated.
The team itself must have felt much worse, after going through a grueling season and coming out of it ranked number and going to finals in the NCAA to see their dreams of being the best swept from under their feet by a single goal.
So close, but so far at the same time. Truly an empty feeling . . .
But at this point I ask you:
Will they be back next year to try it again?
Of course they will and they will probably train twice as hard after getting so close and yet being one shot short of the best. It will fuel their fire.
They won't walk away depressed and never play a lacrosse game again. That's just now how it works. You keep on coming back.
In high school as a wrestler I had a dream of being the best and being featured in the Washington Post newspaper as one of the best wrestlers in the area.
I had this dream when I was a freshman and won 7 out of 25 matches, but I held that dream close to my heart and I persisted.
And you know what it was damn hard, I had moments where I cried after a tough lose that I thought I should have won, and you know what, to this day I have memories of wrestling matches I lost that I should have won. It still stings.
But I did obtain my goal. I was featured in the Washington Post my senior year as one of the best wrestlers in the state. At the moment it happened it was one of the best moments of my life.
To this day I hold that as one of my most proud moments of myself. To the next guy this achievement wouldn't mean much, but to me to obtain that goal was worth more than any amount of money and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
It defines me. It told me that if I have a goal and want it bad enough and I keep on coming back after each set back I'll get it.
When I came to know of network marketing I again formed this same sort of goal. To be the best internet network marketer was literally something I went to bed at night and dreamed about.
I would wake up everyday and think of how I could become better and those days sometimes meant hard lessons and huge amounts of money wasted, but it didn't matter the goal was more important than the money.
I never got paid 1 cent to be a wrestler and the Duke Lacrosse team didn't either - we both strived continually in the face of defeat. Why would someone do that if there is no money involved?
Because there are some things that are MORE important than money and always will be.
This is why I find those who say "Daegan I'm trying really hard I'm not going to give up, I've done XYZ and I haven't had any results yet, but I'm not going to give up because I'm not a quitter" quite a dubious thing to say to me.
Doesn't matter if I think you're a quitter or not, only matters if you do.
