I hardly repeat a movie but the story of Edson ‘Dico’Arantes do Nascimento a.k.a Pele, moved me yesterday which made me watch it twice.
Brazil went quiet when they lost the world cup to Uruguay in 1950; according to the story, a lot of Brazilian fans committed suicide after that heavy 2:1 defeat. Pele’s Dad Dondinho do Nascimento was to feature in that world cup but was dropped due to a knee injury.
After that night’s game that saw old and young weeping their heart out, 8 year old Edson promised his father, he was going to win the world cup for him soon! This was an 8 year old who was not even part of any team , a boy who’s mother didn’t want his father’s predicament to befall his son so asked him not to dream about playing football but concentrate on his education.
Determined as he was, young Edson and his friends polished shoes and sold peanuts to get boots in order to partake in a scouting completion organized by Santos FC.
Pele sailed through to Santos FC at a tender age but proved his doubters wrong and made it to the senior team.
Prior to the 1958 world cup, Pele, who was the hope of the Coach had a similar knee injury as his father, but the Coach wouldn’t take ailment as an excuse; he pushed him through to play and with the Brazilian ‘ginga’ style, they won the 1958 world cup against host nation, Sweden.
Lesson.
At a point time, young Pele forgot about the promise he made to his father about winning the world cup because of the fear of also limping as his Dad but with the support of his coach and team mates, he changed the status quo of family knee injuries and truly won the cup for his Dad and nation.
Before you set out to work, I want to tell you not to settle for normality; before you can break the genes or do something different you have to go the extra mile; and
before the Semi Finals, the coach asked his players to play the European style football not their ‘ginga’ style of football; Pele, who was the striker never felt comfortable playing the European style of football and it went a long way to affect the team’s performance.
Until you can break the gene, you need not to blindly copy someone’s style; stick to what you know doing best and you will be stand out among the lot.
Former President John Dramani Mahama’s father was a minister in the Kwame Nkrumah government, he also grew to become a minister in the Jerry Rawlings government, but didn’t settle for that; because he knew he wasn’t just born to be a minister so he went the extra mile to become the Vice President and later a President.
Pele never settled for less, he would’ve also limped as his father did, but he saw a different destiny and went on to win the 1962 and 1970 world cup among other laurels.
