Rejections

摘要

There is a wonderful YouTube speechgiven by Jon Nakamatsu called, “I’m aLoser.” He was the winner of the VanCliburn piano competition in 1993 andwas serving on the jury for the samecompetition several years later. He is oneof the great classical musicians of ourtime, and, if you listen to his talk, youwill agree that he’s a most sensitive andthoughtful man. He discusses his many“failures” in competition over many yearsuntil he won the Van Cliburn, one of themost competitive piano competitions inthe world. He describes not making thefirst cut, as well as scoring higher but notwinning, hence “losing,” many events, allof which were of lesser significance. Heeven describes a judge, trying to be supportive,suggesting that he refrain fromplaying Chopin, since Japanese are unableto interpret his music properly, that is,with the same sensitivity as Europeans.Nakamatsu’s point was, of course, thatno one wins all the time, and that thereshould be no stigma in losing.