Success Story: Cristiano Ronaldo, CR7

Today, we share lessons from the success of a footballer.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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CR7 is a Portuguese and Real Madrid player, born in 1985 (32 years old). He is regarded by many as one of the best players of all time in football. He is currently the world's highest paid athlete. A lot of us knows how popular he is, how much trophies he has won for both clubs and his country, and individual awards he has achieved. One special thing about him is his hunger for scoring and winning, and his great talent in scoring goals. It sometimes makes one feels it's just too natural with him to find the back on net on almost every occasion, even in his current age, when most players would be losing their touch gradually.

I won't share his numerous achievements here, I just want to point out the lessons from his Success.

One may feel CR7 was just born a Star and he's had a good and perfect life from his childhood, but that isn't so. He is the last child of four children of his parents, his Dad was a gardener and his mum, a cook and a cleaner. He grew up experiencing poverty, had to share a room with his brother and two sisters. His Dad drank a lot, and later died from kidney problems in 2005.

CR7 got introduced to the game of football through his Dad's job as an equipment manager at a boy's club, and from there his interest and talent grew and developed.

When he signed for Manchester United in 2003, he wanted the jersey number (28) he had worn in previous clubs, but Alex Ferguson, then United's coach insisted he wear the number 7 jersey. CR7 said he felt the challenge to up his game and honour the previous great players who had worn that jersey number. Anyway, he did that, in fact, he did above that.

So what could've helped CR7 attain his great feat?

First, he followed his passion and talent. He loved playing football and had the talent for it. He never loved studies that much, got expelled from school at the age of 14 after he threw a chair at a teacher who had disrespected him.

He was focused on his goal, was never taken out of his interest in playing football. He kept up with it and kept progressing.

He loved winning. He hated losing. Even when we watch him, we see how unhappy he feels when he doesn't get his target. The hunger to succeed was great. That spirit has been a motivation for him, so he won't settle for less.

He was hardworking and kept practising. He understood that talent wasn't enough to guarantee anyone success.
Sometime last year, he said:
“If you have talent but don’t work hard, you won’t win anything,”
“In my career, I’ve always worked hard in training and games. It’s hard work which achieves success."

He also said this:
“I am not a perfectionist, but I like to feel that things are done well. More important than that, I feel an endless need to learn, to improve, to evolve, not only to please the coach and the fans, but also to feel satisfied with myself. It is my conviction that there are no limits to learning, and that it can never stop, no matter what our age."

I won't fail to mention that he was self confident. A lot of self confidence indeed! Anyway, we can all see that too.

To add to all the above, he has been involved in some charity works, which I won't mention here. It's always good to help others when you've been blessed to do so.

So, what lessons do you learn?