Resilience #59 Star Quality

Is your World Cup half empty or half full?

Personally, I’ve been enjoying it. But I can’t pretend not to be a little bemused.

See; I’ve got a rudimentary understanding of the basic rules of football. Kick the ball, broadly speaking, unless you’re wearing a particularly colourful jersey. Direct your collective attentions towards the opposition’s net. Try and prevent your opponent from scoring a goal. If they do, endeavour to go one better. Stay within the white lines, if at all possible. There’s something called ‘offside’ which no one really understands but works a bit like a ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ card.

Where the confusion sets in, is the suspicion that there’s also an unwritten set of rules, regarding how best to avoid the rules. Bear with me. From a layperson’s armchair view:

• You can kick/pull/push the opposing player instead of the ball, just so long as it’s deemed to be ‘50/50’.
• If you haven’t been kicked, pushed or pulled, then it’s okay to pretend you have. Hoodwinking an official in to rewarding you with a free kick (or similar) is de rigeur.
• There’s someone in charge of the game called a referee. Whatever decision they make is wrong and guaranteed to upset someone. Berating the referee is to be encouraged, in the hope they can be pressured in to making a favourable (albeit incorrect) decision.
• A game of football typically lasts 90-minutes. A team in a winning position tries their best to utilise as much of that time doing anything apart from playing football (feigning injury, substitution, curiously looking for a ball) as they can.

You get the picture. It’s like they’re doing their very best to do their worst. I can’t help but think that winning at all costs isn’t really a win for the beautiful game. 

There’s a big difference between adhering to the letter of the law and playing within the spirit of the game. Sadly, you don’t just find this in sport, life itself has numerous questionable VAR interventions. People/organisations whose application is wildly inconsistent, leading to dubious results. There are no winners here.

Conversely, at The Art of Brilliance, we’re interested in the few we describe as 2%ers. It’s not that they never ‘break the rules’ just that they play up rather than play down to the lowest common denominator. They do things better than they have to, for the benefit of the greater good. In World Cup terms, they’ve got a touch of the ‘Japan’ about them. After narrowly losing a closely fought contest with Brazil, the ‘Samurai Blue’ showed their winning credentials. The changing room was left spotless, demonstrating an underlying respect for the game and the platform upon which it’s played. They left the right sort of mark on the tournament, one that will be looked upon favourably for years to come.

We can’t all lift the trophy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a winning attitude. Sure, what you do matters, but the way you choose to do it counts more than ever, right now.

True star quality is about far more than a badge on a shirt.