There's a story about, I think, the kickboxer/fighter Alistair Overeem that he was playing Connect 4, and lost, and kept demanding rematches until he had the winning record. Just a refusal to be the loser. That matches every story I've ever heard about Michael Jordan.
I always think of a kid who was a friend of my daughters. He just really liked winning. I mean, when I was a kid and our team won a soccer game I was happy enough. This kid - if his team was playing a tomato can of a team and the score was 12-0 he was just as ecstatic about making the score 13-0 as was with that first goal. I honestly think he was happier about that kind of game then a struggle to beat a reasonable opponent. Heaven forbid they should lose.
Oddly he drifted away from sports (physically he was too small and honestly fragile - 2 or 3 broken bones before he was 12) and into the arts.
At the same time, I can refuse to be a loser in chess and I'll still have 0% chance of beating Magnus Carlsen.
I'm very much a proponent of hard work to the best of your ability but I'm also a realist.
I'm pretty good at programming. I doubt Usain Bolt would ever be as good as I am at programming, even if he tried, and I certainly wouldn't be even close to be as good as Usain Bolt in running no matter how hard I tried.
I know how fast I was running in high school compared to 30 of my peers (my class) and there was never a path from there to a world class athlete.
Miserable way to live, if you ask me.
Everybody playing forced games of connect4 is the loser.
The only winning move is not to play.