Winning streaks are impressive because winning all the time is against the Laws of Nature.
The Invincible Arsenal football team of the early noughties went unbeaten for 49 games — nearly a season and a half. That number is so unfathomably against the odds it boggles the mind.
Especially because it doesn’t get easier the more we win. It gets harder. The odds of failure double every time we roll the die.
The most exciting thing about a winning streak is that every win brings us closer to that inevitable loss.
Like the streaker who knows it’s only a matter of time before the security guards of fate crush his face into the cool grass of reality, we know it won’t be long before the odds catch up with us.
Most of the thrill of winning is knowing we must fail eventually and fighting on still. We feel it in our gut, as much as we wish it postponed.
And the longer a winning streak, the more we realize that failure is part of the fun.
Some say it may even be the whole point.