Sunday, July 09, 2006

5 things the World Cup taught me about Life, Love and Money

Someone once compared the world to a soccer ball as in the world is constantly being kicked around by fanatic men in short pants. This got me to thinking what this FIFA world cup has taught me

a) Passion: As always, I was taken in by the pure thrill of each game - the passion of the players, the enthusiasm of the fans. I feel the coaches who had the most passion and fire on the field had the more determined and successful team. You need to be passionate on things that matter to you.

b) Go beyond the Hype: A lot of time and effort was spent on building an image. The Brazilian team was the favorite to win this competition, but in the end they were just not ready. Beware of things that glitter, for they are often just sprayed on.

c) Too much of a good thing: I must admit I got carried away. I did not heed to any negative remarks about my favorite team, Brazil. I was blind to everything except what I wanted to believe. If I was like that about my money I would be broke by now. I think you should have passion but not too much that you are oblivious to the obvious.

d) Teamwork/Preparation/Skill and pure luck: As the games progressed, the better skilled and in shape team shone, while the ones who were not, fell off the bandwagon. It is crucial to be in shape; laziness, tardiness can be your downfall and just because you got it right once doesn’t make you safe. I feel this is so true about investing and saving; you always need to be prepared. And sometimes what makes you get ahead is - pure luck

e) Its not always fair and the world might not agree with you: Many of us have been disappointed, let down and some are still analyzing the ‘what could have been’. Whatever happens, we cannot change reality. However unfair we may think it to be and no matter how right we think we are, we cannot always get everyone to agree with us .The best sportsman isn’t one who is always the best but the one who always does his best and is brave enough to face any outcome.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aside from the soccer/life metaphor, I learned that I dont enjoy sports very much. Honestly feel that they are overrated. Absolutely despise American football and attribute its popularity only to an animal behavior (id) within human beings!!! :D

B&I said...

Ramblings of a feeble mind :P. i love american football. There is more to sport than animal instincts. There is team work, planning, trust, aspiration...i can go on :)

Anonymous said...

Sorry, you misunderstand me. I do not deny that there is team work, planning etc.. But what I despise about sports is its disproportionate popularity. Interest among the population - shouldn't it be directly proportional to the amount of planning, team work, trust, aspiration etc (I mean all the good things you can think of) involved in a particular job. Can you say that Football/soccer is the event in the world which has involved the greatest amount of "all good things" in this world? What about the making of Microsoft Windows. I bet that making just the console itself would have beaten the planning, trust, aspiration, team work etc of any football team. Why does Football alone gets the praise? Why not the team behind Windows?

That point aside, how many people watch Football because of its planning, teamwork, trust, aspiration etc..?