You need to lose more Marvel Snap games. Seriously. I imagine if you're like me, you tell yourself, losing sucks. It's no fun. I don't want to lose. Losing means that I'm a loser. Losing means that I'm not worthwhile. But really, it's losing that makes the game fun.
Do you remember starting out playing Marvel Snap? If you're like me, all you did is probably win. Almost every game. And it was miserably boring. You're like, God, I really wish this game would beat me. I really would like to lose. It gets old, winning constantly. Believe it or not, it's losing that really makes it fun.
I remember when I first lost, the first game I lost in those first few games, I'm like, thank God. I was getting so bored just winning Snap games all the time. I took an eight cube loss and then a four cube loss, and I was actually hoping to lose the next one too. I'm not trying to lose, and my opponent just snapped. That said, it's losing that makes winning joyful. When you just beat the computer and their bot every single game, the game's no fun.
So I encourage you, next time you're telling yourself how bad it is to lose, and you hate losing, and you're dreading losing, lean into it. Lean into winning, obviously. Winning, duh. But also let yourself just enjoy losing and enjoy the experience that the game has to offer you.
It's a balance in life
Because it's a balance in life. It's having things go bad that makes it awesome when life goes good. The worse your life is today, the more you have the chance to appreciate when life is not bad.
For me, my life is going just fantastic. I'm a full-time YouTuber and I have a wife that's beautiful. We have a great relationship. I have kids that I love and they love me, and they're all healthy. My life is amazingly good. And one reason I can actually appreciate that today is because I was an alcoholic who drank and was lonely and who struggled and had a really hard time. I know what it's like to have life be bad. I know what it's like to have life be miserable. And I'm grateful that it's not like that today. Because of the struggles I had in my life before, now I'm in a position to really enjoy my life.
That's why often, we all want to raise our kids up so that they're wealthy and they're healthy and have a nice life situation. But often, it's spoiled rich kids that grow up miserable. Why? Because their life was too easy. Nothing was difficult. They didn't struggle. They didn't have the hard times that many of the rest of us had growing up. They grew up with everything and so much abundance, and ironically, that can really make things stink sometimes.
I used to detest losing
I've been a competitive gamer a lot in my life. I even was a professional gamer. I got paid to play video games. I made over $100,000 in 2021 playing video games. And I used to absolutely detest and hate losing. The worst thing that could happen in my day was that I could go on my live stream and just get annihilated.
So today, I'm really glad to take an eight cube loss. I'll take an eight cube loss, and the opponent retreated, and I was kind of getting excited. It's losing that shows you where you have the chance to learn. And this is why my life is so good right now: because I lost so much before.
I lost way more than most of my friends did when I was dating. I swear I found every way not to date a girl, from getting fake phone numbers and getting ghosted, to leaving girls at the club, to a restraining order, to losing a job. I really tried all these different ways to date. And now, I have the happiest relationship of anybody I know. From when I was younger to the year 2011, when I met my wife, I took a lot more pain than most of my friends and family did dating. But the friends and family who just had it pretty easy dating often have ended up with messy, nasty divorces and really long, unsatisfying relationships. And things have went great for me.
So if you want to be a better Marvel Snap player, you should enjoy losing. You should get good at losing. You should be comfortable losing. Because losing is what builds you into a winner. The best Marvel Snap players have lost way more than almost anybody else has. The best Marvel Snap players have taken more losses than almost anybody else. Because most people just lose over and over and get beat and get smacked, and they're often not going to continue playing the game. It's having the patience, the persistence, the love, the joy to continue playing after you've gotten beaten repeatedly. That's where the magic happens. I get into this whole question of whether competitive games are worth it in why I wrestle with competitive games being zero-sum self-sabotage or character-building, and this is the same struggle from the other side.
Be proud of the losses you've taken
So I'm grateful today for all the stuff I've been through. And I hope you can be grateful for the stuff you've been through in your life too. Because that's how character building happens. That's how you get to know what you can really do in life. That's how you get to really appreciate your skills and talents. It's losing that makes a winner. It's having things not go as you planned.
Now, yes, this can backfire. This can backfire if you tell stories that you are a loser. If you tell stories that because you lose, you are a loser, then that's going to backfire on you. So never tell stories that you're a loser simply because you've lost. If you've lost, that means you've tried. That means you've showed up. That means you have something you can be proud of. So never be down on yourself for what you've been through. Be proud of what you've been through. I'm very proud of the life I've had and what I've been through, and that's how I am able to keep showing up here today. This is the kind of thing I talk through every day with the people inside the Jerry Banfield Family.
So I want you to be proud of the losses you've taken in your life, even if they look like they were self-inflicted. For example, I was a police officer and I had a career in law enforcement that, because of a girl I dated and my behavior in relation to that, I ended up losing the job. And I'm so glad that happened just the way it happened today. Like losing a Snap game, it doesn't mean I will lose the game. It doesn't mean I am a loser. It's just fun. It's fun to try and see what you can do and what you're capable of.
If you play life safe and you try never to lose all the time, then what happens is you end up not being able to be very fulfilled or very satisfied, because you're too concerned about losing and you're too concerned about being wrong. What happens is life ends up being really boring. So take those losses and be proud of yourself for the losses you've taken. And life will get better than you can imagine. Life will blow you away with how great it can be. And all you have to do is just be willing to lose. Be willing to throw the cards down. Be willing to lose. And have the game not come out how you thought it was going to go. And see what happens.
So what if you lose?
And if you lose, so what? It looks like I'm going to lose eight cubes on this game. And do you see, was I harmed? Was I harmed losing eight cubes? Did I become injured? Did I lose money? I just lost eight cubes right there, and it took me down to rank 86. So what? Did anything bad happen?
In fact, you can even look at losing as something considerate you're doing for other people. I remember when I was playing Warzone, I was one of the best Warzone solo players in the world. I won, and I won a lot. And I wasn't cheating. A lot of the people who were playing Warzone solos and winning a lot on Facebook in 2021 were cheating, and that's how they were winning. I wasn't cheating, and I wasn't some teenager with absolute best reactions. I was using really smart strategies. People were actually getting upset watching me. They're getting upset, like, this guy's strategy shouldn't work. He shouldn't be able to just camp the whole game and then creep around at the end and win and beat 149 other people with almost no skill. But it did.
And how did I learn that? Well, let every loss in life teach you a lesson. Learn from every loss you take in life. Because when I take an eight cube loss, I'm learning. I'm not going to make the exact same mistake I made again. When you learn from your losses, every loss is a learning opportunity. When you're winning, it's kind of hard to learn, which is ridiculous. But when you're winning, it's difficult to even learn. Because when you're winning, it's like, okay, well, I did everything right, so I'm just, you know, I'm awesome. It's losing games that teaches you a lesson.
Never confuse losing with being a loser
Therefore, never confuse losing with being a loser. Always take pride in: hey, I tried. I learned. And maybe I lost. But my effort is proof that I'm trying. I'm proud of the losses I've taken in my life. And I continue to put myself in a position where I will lose more and more. I will lose more eight cube games in Marvel Snap. But you'll notice, I keep leveling up also. I keep leveling up and I keep getting better and better at the game. And that's awesome. It's really nice to get better and better at the game. It's nice to be proud of my skill at the game, and to know that I'm good at the game because of all the losses I've taken.
And every loss sets you up for a win. Even if, for example, you lose at Marvel Snap and you think, you know, I hate this game, I don't want to play it anymore, then that's a win. Because now you've learned something valuable. You're like, you know what, maybe there's a better use of my time. It will even help you set up your next win by revealing to you, hey, I really like doing something else. I'd rather not spend my day playing Marvel Snap. There's something else I'd rather do. So even then, if you lose, your loss has turned into a win. Your loss has shown you that there's something better for you to do. And that's a win. That makes a real difference. And then your victory is so much sweeter because of that.
So I just took a four cube retreat right there. And because I lost the last game, it feels better to collect that win. Isn't it one of the most precious things in life just to have emotion? Just having emotion is precious. The most difficult thing for a game to do is to get me to feel something. And I love that Marvel Snap gets me to feel something. So I hope sharing this gets you to feel something too. If you enjoy this kind of thing, you can watch more in my Games playlist, and you might like reading about the day I came back to Marvel Snap after spending $2,000 and quitting or about losing 18 to 1 and still saying yes to the moment.
I lost six cubes total across these games. But the lessons here could be a huge win for you in your life. And I'll remember this next time I take another eight cube loss.