EARLY LESSONS IN STRATEGY
The Challenge:
One of my early personal recollections in the art of strategy was when I was as a boarder in Junior Secondary School. I was appointed as "Sectional Head" which is what Junior house captains where called. Not too long into my role, I was informed that an inter-house football competition had been schedule to hold in about 2 weeks. Now understand that I had absolutely no interest in football and couldn't play to save my life. To make matters worse, my "house" had the unfortunate reputation of being made up of students who just couldn't play. We were said to have "two left legs or double lefties".
Our Preparation:
From the perspective of my colleagues, we were dead already. I was determined not to go down without a fight. I told my housemates, if we plan to win, we must prepare and look like winners. We wore our house sports colours and canvas (mind you, at this time, doing this was a big deal as it was normal for students to dress anyhow they liked and train on barefoot). I remember the spiteful laughter of other contending houses as we jogged out of our house in a single file everyday for practice. We ensured we always smiled back at them and waved. Everyone believed we were losers but we dressed and acted like winners.
Our Simple strategy:
When we got to the field I put forward a very simple strategy which we adopted as a team:
1. One Touch and Pass: Apart from 3 housemates, the rest of us on the team didn't really know how to play. So we mastered two skills. Tackling to collect the ball and never going beyond a single touch before passing on to another team member. No other member was allowed to dribble towards goal. The focus was to minimize individual ball possession and pass on until it got to any of our three preferred players. Only they were permitted to freestyle and aim towards goal.
2. Ensure Maximum Ball Possession: we did everything we could to ensure that the ball never left the team. We were not ambitious to make long passes. We maintained short passes and tried to make them effective.
Now our approach might have seemed too simplistic but it proved very effective. We shocked the entire school when we won the first match which proved to be the most difficult because we were trying out our ideas for the first time. Our play improved with every match and we ended up winning the tournament. It was indeed another underdog story.
Lessons learned:
1. Focus on building strong teams. The idea of a lone star is overated
2. Iteration not perfection: The road to perfection is paved with a series of imperfect actions
3. Executing an average strategy is better than flying blind
5. Maintain a positive self image
6. In life and on the field never go down without a fight. You might just surprise yourself and shock the world.
This experience has influenced my attitude toward achieving success in life. I leverage the power of the team and I never assume defeat until the game is over.
