This week, a miracle unfolded. In the world game of football (aka soccer for some) something incredible happened and shocked the billions of fans following the 2009 Confederation Cup. Egypt, the African Cup champions (who haven’t qualified for the World Cup in 20+ years) beat the current World Champions Italy 1-0. You could almost hear all the football fans around the world stop breathing simultaneously as the referee blew the final whistle. A miracle had occurred and shocked every football fan that has ever watched the worlds game. Egypt beat Italy.
It doesn’t end there. Long has the Egyptian National Team been criticized ad nauseum about how they absolutely stink at set plays (i.e. penalty, foul kick, corner kick). Egypt scored the only goal of the game on a corner kick. Mohamed Homos, the young player who scored the Shakesperean header in the top left corner of the net as the world-class Italian goalkeeper stood there like his feet were planted in concrete, was playing in his first EVER international game for the National Team.
There are a couple of lessons to be learned from these miraculous events.
Never underestimate the underdog. In business, we sometimes develop tunnel vision and think “hey, we’re the best and no one can beat us in the niche we play in”. The higher you go, the harder you fall. Every day I look in the mirror in the morning and I remind myself of this lesson. I even talk to myself — “Osama, you are going to be humble, but confident, aggressive in your pursuit of excellence, but accepting of your limitations and weaknesses”. No one is perfect. Its the pursuit of the unreachable goal of excellence that makes successful entrepreneurs what they are.
Just because you’re young and inexperienced, it doesn’t mean you can’t do something great. When I was a young, and started my own business, I always used to get the “doubt treatment”. I remember one customer in particular – I was in an interview for a project and the two interviewees were practically rolling on the floor laughing when I confidently told them I could deploy a nationwide network migration for them with zero user downtime in 8 months. I finally challenged them – I told them that I would show them my plan and proof of concept in 2 months and if it didn’t make sense they could cancel my contract. Suffice it to say the nationwide deployment was done under budget, on time and with zero user downtime as promised.
It would be foolish for me to puff out my chest in pride and say that Egypt will win the Confederation Cup. But for a few moments on Thursday, one watched a miracle occur, and hope poured in through my viens as the country of my origin played their hearts out and showed the world to never underestimate the underdog. Go Egypt!
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