Pyrrhic Victory
A victory so costly that it is barely distinguishable from a defeat.
The expression originates from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans in two battles around 280 BC, but lost so many of his best men that, according to Plutarch, he reportedly said: "One more victory like this, and I am ruined." A Pyrrhic victory is thus a formal win that in practice so severely depletes the victor that it becomes impossible to translate into anything lasting.
A company sues a competitor and wins the lawsuit, but loses two years of product development and its best engineers in the process. The headlines read victory; the balance sheet tells a different story.
The concept is useful for assessing whether a goal is truly worth the price. Many prolonged conflicts turn out to be Pyrrhic victories for everyone involved.
Think about a "victory" you have had in the past year. What did it cost—and was it worth it?
A victory that costs more than it yields is barely a victory at all.
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