The Cube, the Competition, and the Lesson

I recently had the chance to take my son to a Rubik’s Cube competition in Yunlin. For those who are not familiar with the Rubik’s Cube community, it is actually incredibly popular among kids in Taiwan. When registration opens for a competition, all the spots can be taken within a minute—and that is no exaggeration.

To register for many of these competitions, participants need to have competed before and received a membership number. If you don’t have one yet, you usually need to start with a smaller or less well-known competition to establish a competition record.

Yunlin is close to Chiayi. From where we live, it took about an hour on the HSR, followed by another 30-minute cab ride from the train station. We have been to several competitions around Taiwan, and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from one held in a smaller city. To my surprise, the elementary school hosting the competition was quite new, modern, and well maintained.

One of the things I enjoy about Taiwan is how different the scenery can be as you travel around the island. Our lives are usually busy with the kids’ activities, so much of our exploration happens alongside their competitions and events. We didn’t have much time to explore Yunlin in depth, but from the cab ride, it struck me as a relatively small city with quite a bit of new development.

What surprised me the most was the energy at the competition. The participants were mostly young kids and teenagers, although there were also plenty of adults happily immersing themselves in the game and the competition.

It was a long trip that started early in the morning, but I could see how excited my son was. He was completely immersed in the community, eager to see how others competed, learn what was possible, and experience his own debut.

People at the competition were also very friendly. My son had been practicing day and night and had become completely obsessed with cubes. Like many other competitive activities—and yes, I am still wondering whether Rubik’s Cube should officially count as a sport—getting to the top is incredibly difficult. As you improve, every additional improvement becomes exponentially harder.

I didn’t have particularly high expectations for his results. My main goal was simply to let him compete, challenge himself, and do his best.

He entered two events, one on Saturday and another on Sunday. Since we weren’t expecting much, we hadn’t even planned around the possibility of him advancing. But he performed well in both competitions and, to our surprise, made it into the second round.

At one point, a judge even came over to tell me that my son was doing very well. We chatted for a bit, and he learned that we were originally from the U.S. and that this was my son’s first competition in Taiwan.

For me, the dedication and passion were what really mattered. It wasn’t about the result. It was about his willingness to devote himself to something, try to become better, and learn from both winning and losing.

He was thrilled to make it to the second round. The level of competition there was already insanely fast, and watching the more experienced competitors was an eye-opening experience for him.

The next day, we returned for the second round and were again greeted warmly by the people there. My son—and, admittedly, I as well—was doing his best to communicate in Mandarin. Watching him interact with everyone also made me realize how much progress he has made with the language. He seems to be becoming increasingly comfortable and fluent.

And then came the results.

Well… he didn’t make it to the final.

But perhaps that was the best part of the experience. He now has a better understanding of where he stands, how much room there is to improve, and what the next level looks like. More importantly, he genuinely appreciated the experience.

I guess that is the lesson I took away from the weekend as well.

The process matters more than the result. Learning how to compete is important, but learning how to lose, reflect, improve, and come back stronger is just as important.