7.2 Nancy Lopez: Be a Competitor

“A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.” - Nancy Lopez

Are you a competitor?

Nancy Lopez was a dominant female golfer, but she wasn’t just a prolific winner; her engaging personality and dominance in a male-dominated era helped expand mainstream interest in women’s golf.

She once said, “A competitor will find a way to win. Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves just that much harder. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up. It's all a matter of pride.”

She also said, “Do your best, one shot at a time, and then move on.”

How you choose to respond to mistakes and adversity is one of the most important decisions you will make. Will you put your head down, pout, feel sorry for yourself, and make excuses, or will you keep your head up, have a good attitude, take ownership, and keep fighting?

True competitors don’t make excuses. They stay focused, adapt, and push through, even when things get tough. Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, they use setbacks as fuel. Adversity motivates them, not breaks them.

Quitters blame circumstances. They let setbacks justify quitting.

It comes down to personal pride—how much you care, how hard you’re willing to fight, and who you want to be known as.

Everyone gets bad breaks. The difference is how you respond. Competitors rise. Quitters retreat. It’s about pride in how you handle adversity.

Question of the Day: When things don’t go our way, how do we usually respond—do we compete harder, or start to check out?