09/12/2020
It's true what they say - STORIES SELL take this one for example.
A wise man (let's call him Ben) told me 'behind every successful athlete out there, anywhere in the world, there is ALWAYS a successful coach'. Take these five athletic people shown here below (and yes I am writing this post after the person on the left, coach Ole, showed us that last night in the Champions League - a soccer tournament played in Europe - he WAS an extremely successful athlete but he's probably not a successful coach)
The man pictured in the middle was an athlete, he was a soccer player (in Europe we say a footballer) but not a very good one. He did however for 27 years, enjoy unparalleled success as a soccer coach of one of the biggest and richest clubs in history - the legendary Manchester Manchester Manchester UNITED (I'm a fan, as you can probably tell, for reasons unknown at the moment, but I've been a fan since the 1980s). The name of the coach is Sir Alex Ferguson (Scotland).
He's pictured here with the new Manchester United coach (From left to right) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Cristiano Ronaldo (now playing for Juventus in Italy), Sir Alex Ferguson (Coach), Roy Carroll, Darren Fletcher and Eric Djemba-Djemba
Now these athletes went on to do incredible things and achieve incredible victories (e.g. the 'treble' this is where the team goes on in soccer to win at competitions for example their premier league, the FA cup final a competition of British soccer teams) and the Champions League (where they contend against the very best teams throughout Europe) in a team that included well known names such as David Beckham (GB), the infamous Roy Keane (IRL), , the enigmatic Eric Cantona (FR) and the legendary CR7 - Cristiano Ronaldo (PL).
I was one of the lucky people to be there that night in the Nou Camp, Barcelona, to witness one of the worst soccer matches in my life, with a result that came in our favour during the last 90 seconds of play, when we were rescued from the jaws of defeat by Teddy Sheringham (then a grandfather in footballing terms) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. I remember running round the streets of Barcelona screaming, along with everyone else in a red shirt 'who put the ball in the German net???' 'Ole Gunnar Solskjaer!!!')
Whether you like them or you loathe them, one thing is for sure - the athletes at Manchester United, owe their success, in part to their incredible hard work but they also owe a large part of their success to their coach - Sir Alex Ferguson.
So many times I see in business, people preferring to take out a loan to purchase the latest TV or iPhone or laptop and yet when asked about their own personal development - they tell you it's important and it's on the top of their list of priorities but it's not that important.
For me, getting myself out of the situation (symptom) from June 2019 was imperative and I couldn't have done this without inspirational people around me. So I suppose at this point I should thank my coachES (plural).
So a very big thank you to Tony, Dean, Rusty, Jeff, Ted, Frank, Jenna, Stephanie, Stuart, Paul and Rachel. I couldn't have done any of this without you
