This was a very hard week for soccer fans in Japan. The Blue Samurai soccer team went to Qatar and lost their soccer game to the soccer team from Croatia. Everyone must feel so bad. Everyone must feel so terrible. Everyone must feel so shocked. It is such a no good, very bad, terrible, shocking event. Yes, it is so terrible…

Well…. Maybe not so bad. Maybe not so terrible.

Because this was also a very wonderful week for soccer fans in Japan. Samurai Blue soccer team went to Qatar and played this beautiful game for Japan and they played with the greatest soccer players in the world from Costa Rica, Germany, and Spain. Everyone must feel so good. Everyone must feel so wonderful. Everyone must feel so proud. It is such an incredible, very good, fantastic, marvelous event.

It sounds strange. Sometimes we are going to lose. Samurai Blue lost their game to Croatia. But they also could win. They could win the right to go to the World Cup. They could play soccer, and run like the wind in front of the whole world, and fight, and score goals, and experience the dream they had for many years to play in the World Cup for Japan. That is such a beautiful story.

Winning feels great, but winning is something that often comes only after many experiences of losing.

There are so many examples of beautiful losers. Today I have some examples for you of famous people who were losers many times, who failed many times, and who continued to fight again and again anyway.

Winston Churchill of England was the greatest prime minister of England. He was a terrible student. He lost many battles but he never quit fighting.

Walt Disney, the father of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland was a newspaper reporter. He was fired from his job and his first company was a failure.

Thomas Edison failed over 10,000 times to make the light bulb. He never stopped trying until he could make the first light bulbs that made light.

Sylvester Stallone, the actor of “Rocky” had a very hard life. He was homeless and lost everything. He even lost his dog because he was so poor. But he never stopped fighting to be a Hollywood actor.

Steven Spielberg was a bad student. He quit school. Steve Jobs quit school too and lost his company. Honda Soichiro, who created the Honda motorcycle and engine parts for Toyota had his factory crushed twice. One time by the Americans and another time in an earthquake. All three of these men never quit until they had success.

Other famous losers in history are Milton Hershey of the Hershey Chocolate and Michael Jordan who is the greatest basketball player in history. People like Keanu Reeves, Charlie Chaplin, J.K. Rowling, and Elvis Presley all had terrible trouble to be successful at the beginning. Everyone had trouble. Everyone had bad luck. Everyone had many people say, “No, you cannot be successful” to them.

Samurai Blue who played so hard for Japan in Qatar are now part of the group of famous, and beautiful losers. Their story is not completed yet, and we will watch them continue, and run on the field again, and fight again. We love the beautiful losers because we are also like them.

We are students and teachers and staff, and we all have our challenges and troubles. Some days we all lose. But we must continue to learn more, study more, grow more, and never stop. Maybe the important thing for our lives is not about winning first place. Maybe our lives is not about holding the big trophy at the end. Maybe our lives are about the fighting hard, and the falling down, and the getting up again, and the running again. Thank you Samurai Blue. We will see you fight again!