This is one of those speeches that really struck a nerve with me, “The Winner Takes It All.”

“Winner” is the tenth and final episode of the fourth season of the AMC television series Better Call Saul. -Wiki

If you don’t know Better Call Saul, you need to know that Jimmy McGill, now known as Saul Goodman, is the younger brother of Chuck McGill, a big-shot lawyer who won a multi-million dollar verdict that put his firm (HHM) and himself, on the map. Slipping Jimmy, as he once was called, was a scam artist that never quite lived up to his brother Chuck’s legacy. Even after getting his law degree, and turning his life around, he was never truly respected.

Slippin’ Jimmy

During this episode, Jimmy sits on a panel with other HHM employees who will be awarding a scholarship in his brother Chuck’s name to the candidate who impresses them most, therefore getting the most votes. There are several immaculate contestants that apply yet Jimmy wants to give it to the girl who’s haunted by a shoplifting charge from her past. As a young girl, she made a mistake, but no one else on the panel can see past that mistake.

Saul Goodman

Jimmy tells the panel he wants to give that girl a second look, saying that everyone makes mistakes, and she has really tried hard to right the ship. He continues to lobby for her saying she’s kept her grades up and stayed out of trouble, but the panel has already made up its mind. We don’t get to see who wins, we just see Jimmy running out to catch the girl and then explaining to her why she “didn’t get it.” This has come to be called “The Winner Takes All Speech.”

“You didn’t get it, You were never gonna get it. They’ll smile at you, they’ll pat you on the head, but they’ll never let you in.”

“You made a mistake, and they are never forgetting it. As far as they’re concerned, your mistake is who you are. It’s all you are.”

Like a sucker punch to the gut, the truth hurts. I didn’t win any scholarships. Heck, I didn’t even go to college until I met my wife. I tried my hand at junior college and started working full time. When I started bartending, digging foundations, and making enough money, I dropped out. But for me, not belonging to the club started much earlier, in high school, when everyone was traveling around to different colleges and applying to them.

I didn’t look at colleges when I was a junior or a senior. I lived with my grandma, and it didn’t seem possible, it wasn’t an option. She had a hard enough time keeping food on the table.

I didn’t know how to talk to her about college and when I once got the gumption to bring it up, she very calmly told me, “You don’t need college. You’ll get a job in town at a local store. You’ll meet a nice girl, and settle down. God will provide.” Something like that.

When all my friends went to look at schools, I was inwardly very jealous. When they brought it up, I had nothing to add, I felt like I didn’t belong. When they came back from graduating college, it felt worse. I felt like I wasn’t as good as them anymore, it was beyond not belonging.

Society has a habit of making people feel like they don’t belong, and Jimmy feels this more than anyone does. We can take a different route to the top and still win. That’s what Jimmy wants the girl to know. If they won’t give it to her then she has to take it; by any means necessary.

Either way, this particular speech hit a nerve with me. “The Winner Takes It All,” struck a chord and I felt the need to write about it.

Someone always has to win. But that doesn’t mean that the rest of us have to give up. We need to grab our own slice of the pie.

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