I may not be a sports fanatic, or
follow closely the exploits of the likes
of messi and rolnaldo or understand
the schematics of the UEFA
champions league or FIFA world cup.
But one thing I know is ... I am big fan
of the super eagles. I try my best not
miss their matches. Her encounter
with France was of no
exception...4days ago I sat glued to a
Tv set for more that 90 minutes
hoping and praying we would win
that game. But alas we were beating
2-0 ... 2 freaking zero... till today
those goals keep replaying in my
head. *arrggghhh*. I had two option,
to either feel bad for our failure or to
see this as one of my numerous
learning opportunities and instead
focus on deriving insight and
inspiration from this depressing
encounter. Alas I chose the latter.
Below are really key lessons I
relearned from that encounter .
In the first half we played strong, we
shook their defense, we had more ball
possession, nearly 80% of people I
communicated with during the early
phase of the match were positive we
would win... but alas with several
minute into the second half and few
minutes to go, our hopes of moving
to the quarter finals were dashed with
2 goals. What surprised me was not
the two goals we conceded but
France's strategy... It occurred to me
that they had been conserving their
energy for the latter part of the match,
they also tricked us to underestimate
them by not coming on strong. At the
same time building a very strong
defense, so even though we had more
ball possession we couldn't score.
Now with few minutes to go they
started playing with more energy and
vigor, their performance and speed
increased.
To my surprise France started playing
world class football, there passes
became more sharper, at this juncture
our players were already tired plus
they were taken unawares by the
spike in France performance level
given that the French had
physiologically made them to
underestimate them. I believe France
adopted this strategy after watching
our march with Argentina paying
more attention to how fast we
equalized. They knew that they stood
a higher chance to score a goal at the
tail end of the march leaving the
super eagles with no time to equalize
after having noticed that we always
wear out during the ending period of a
match.
The strategy was simple Take them
by surprise and never give them room
to recover. On understanding this I
smiled and gave a standing ovation
for France.
The point is
To win you need a strategy not just
any strategy a brilliant strategy : We
all want to win in life, Win that juicy
promotion, Win that scholarship
opportunity, Win the heart of the love
of our life. we all want to succeed in
life ... but have you sat down to build
a winning strategy. How you intend
to get from where you are to where
you want to be, have your
understudied your opponents, the
risks and challenges you would face
on the way and have you built a
contingency plan, or do you just live
life by chance, moving towards any
direction the wind of life pushes you
to.
You want to excel, who do you need
to know, what role are they going to
play in your life at what time, what
knowledge and insight do you require
to get there, what steps are you
making to reach for stars. What
strategy are you building to outsmart
your stumbling blocks.
As you build your strategy Stick this
into your head, "Brain will always win
over might" Just like France beat us
using their brain over our might. So it
is in life. Design a brilliant strategy
that is focused on working smarter
instead of harder... As a popular
saying goes..." If na by muscle
bricklayer for become billionaire " ...
Never forget that Smart people never
stay poor.
The most important battles are
fought in the mind: When France
gave us the first goal. I could feel how
demoralized our players were, they
lost their cool and their performance
dwindled... It was evident the French
didn't just score they damaged their
psyche. It was evident our players
lost hope... they didn't believe they
could equalize. This was evident in
the way Osaze carelessly left the ball
to go offside which eventually lead to
the second goal.
The point is there will be moments in
life where your faith will be tested,
Where you will be put through fire &
brimstone. Where the light at the end
of the tunnel instead of getting
brighter will shut right in your face.
You'll feel like there is no need to
hope again. In moments like this, It is
very crucial you never say never, hope
again, never stop believing in
miracles, never give up. Because the
moment you stop believing, in that
same moment you fail before even
failing.
If possible reach for greatness let
your set back inspire you and drive
you. Let it make you better. The good
thing with this approach is that even
if you eventually fail ... You would've
have failed with class. Something we
did during our encounter with
Argentina... We lost by one goal but
we still applauded them because they
fought to the end... the played good
football throughout.
Finally it not about how you start but
how you end. The end RESULTS is all
that matter in life no one freaking
cares about how hard you've toiled,
how many attempts or shot you
made to achieve success, How you
started brilliantly all they care about
is results, end results.
It is evident that 70% of the time we
played good football, we had more
possession ... we dribbled we were
on point but at the end we lost and
we lost woefully, we made terrible
mistakes. That is all we remember..
the mistakes, Yobo's own goal,
Mikels poor performance, Osaze's
misjudgement, Enyema's poor
judgment that lead to the goals.
The world celebrate heroes, they
celebrate winners, They never give
f*uk about failures... do whatever it
takes that is just and within the
confines of your conscience ... to
freaking succeed.
In all be smart and NEVER SAY
NEVER.
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