Written by Olufemi Sunday Afolabi

Having established some fundamental truths about the life of any man that desires to grow and move to the peak of his career, fulfill his dream, achieve his aim, etc in the part-one and part- two of this article, there is a need to move to the third part which shall be anchored on the role of hardwork and persistence driven by passion.

Our point man or case study ( as some would like it) is Mr George Weah, the President-elect of the Republic of Liberia, a one time Ballon D’or Winner and the only African to have won that award ever. He also won World Player of the year in 1996, a fantastic feat for a one time high school drop-out.

Audacity of Passion intends to encourage anyone passing through a phase of his or her life that is very discouraging and despairing. It does not matter what you situation is now as you read this article, if you believe in your dream, fight for it PASSIONATELY and pray to the God Almighty, the creator of the whole universe, just as we are celebrating Mr Weah today, you will come back with testimony.

This part three shall focus soly on the struggles of Mr Weah’s early days. His failures and persistence. We will move to how is football career started, how he moved to Europe and had a fascinating soccer career, the best in the history of any African Football Player ever.

Weah’s Football Career

George Weah began to play soccer for the Young Survivors youth club at the age of 15 according to our source. This was the beginning of the great things to come. The trajectory of his football career started from the age of 15. He was a teenager. He was young and vibrant. He had all the strength to run. Although, this is not a quite too early time using the international standard of this age but for a man that started in Africa, this is good enough.

Most people dont know how to say goodbye to the past. His inability to finish secondary school was enough to discourage a teenager of his class and level of then. The sterotyped mindset of failure and incapability was enough to put him off the radar. Yet the young Weah saw the Bigger Picture beyond the High School failure. He knew his dream can still be fulfilled. He knew there was still hope for even a tree cut down. He never lost hope.

He began his career early. He hit ground and ran immediately.

Many people dont know what the functionality of our chronological age is. There are many things that some people cannot do again in life even if they possess the best of talents and skills in them. Starting early means getting it right early. Perfectioning of your skills, blending of the training and trials, etc can be accommodated while you grow up.

Usain Bolt is retired now. He retired from Sprint Race at the age of 30. Lionel Messi has won 5 Ballon D’ors before the age of 28. Christiano Ronaldo just won his fifth Ballon D’or at 32. If a man of 45 years now decides to begin his soccer career, who does he want to compete with? You remember the common maxim of ‘Early to bed is early to rise’?

The great Pele of Brazil is still alive but cannot run through a football pitch any more. Pele won World club in a sterling way for a record 3 good times ( highest for any individual). Maradona is still alive but cannot move his body as he did in 1986 again, in fact, he stopped playing soccer because he was taking drug to keep his pace.

Whatever you want to do, start NOW, procrastination has been termed the thief of time. The more you procrastinate; the more you waste your time and destiny. You have got to do it now. Brian Tracy wrote the book, ‘Eat that Frog’ and there he analyzed many things that have happened to many of us through the intrumentality of delay, procrastination and time wasting.

George Weah later moved to other local football clubs where he assumed starring roles for Mighty Barrolle and Invicible Eleven. While doing all these, he was becoming better. He was developing new skills. He was meeting new persons. He was getting better.

This part will lead me to another fundamental point, while still talking about Weah’s football career, and that is the angle of ‘Talents are not enough’

Talents are not enough

Many of us will believe that a tree cannot make a forest. We might also agree that meats only cannot give us the best of stew or soup because you will need other condiments and ingredients to prepare a good meal.

It has been confirmed also that Love is not enough in marriage as written by Olumide Emmanuel, there are other elements and virtues like determinations, tolerance, forgiving spirits, trust, good communication, etc before you can have a good home.

In the same vein, no man can rely on just talents to get to the peak of his career. We need those trainings. there is a need for a dint of hardwork. We need those new friends. We need those seminars, meetings, workshops, etc to see new lights, develop new skills, get new revelations, ignite the fire of success, arouse the latent talents and awaken the giants in you.

You dont pick a plank from the saw mill and place in the presidential villa just like that without taking it to a furniture maker to file, sandpaper, clean up, paint and drill before it is fit for the President’s use.

Almost everybody is given a level of grace. Grace here talks about that special ability, talent or skill that can make you a unique being. However, not everybody will get to that wonderful and lofty heights in life. You want to know why? It is very simple, they want to rely on the talents alone and that is not possible. It is against the law of success.

Read further by clicking : http://newsechoes.com/2018/01/05/audacity-of-passion-a-case-study-of-george-weah-part-3/

http://newsechoes.com/2018/01/03/audacity-of-passion-george-weah-as-a-case-study-part-2/

http://newsechoes.com/2017/12/29/the-audacity-of-passion-the-example-of-george-weah-part-1/