Everyone Is Wrong About Participation Trophies

Build For Tomorrow

Jason Feifer

Business, History, Technology, Entrepreneurship

4.7 • 573 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You’ve heard the story: Young people got “participation trophies” as kids, and it taught them to be entitled, lazy workers. But here’s what you haven’t heard: Participation trophies are 100 years old, and for most of that time, they were considered a good thing. Here’s the real story of how these trophies became villainized… and what their actual impact is. Get in touch! Website: jasonfeifer.com Newsletter: jasonfeifer.bulletin.com Instagram: Instagram.com/heyfeifer Twitter: Twitter.com/heyfeifer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Indeed.
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0:22.2	Indeed.com slash SPANUK. Terms and conditions apply. This is Build for Tomorrow, a podcast about the
0:31.0	things from history that shape us and how we can shape the future. I'm Jason Pfeiffer. Have you heard about
0:36.8	participation trophies? I'm sure that you
0:39.6	have. I mean, the participation trophy and its corrupting influence on a generation of children
0:44.5	is a story that we have been collectively telling ourselves for decades. But just in case it is
0:50.5	new to you, here are the basics. In youth sports today, every kid gets a trophy.
0:56.7	Doesn't matter if they win or lose. Doesn't matter if they try it hard or not at the end of each
1:01.2	season or whatever, they get a trophy. A trophy for participating. And this teaches kids a very
1:07.9	harmful lesson. Because I mean, if a kid learns that winners and losers are both
1:12.5	rewarded with a trophy, well, then what incentive does anyone have to work hard? Why bother trying to
1:19.2	win if the outcome is the same? And if that is the lesson that you learn at a young age,
1:23.7	then as you get older, you will start applying that lesson more broadly in relationships,
1:28.5	in your career, and so on.
1:30.1	It is a lesson of entitlement, and I deserve this just because I showed up.
1:35.2	So anyway, that is the story of the participation trophy.
1:39.6	And here's how it sounds in real life.
	...

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