4.2 Pelé: Overcoming Difficulties

“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning."  - Pelé 

Have you ever had a challenge you felt like you couldn’t overcome, a skill you couldn’t master, or an opponent you couldn’t beat?

When I was growing up, there was one person in our city who was better than everybody, whom nobody could catch or beat. They made people quit because people couldn’t compete with them.

Instead of climbing the mountain and trying to catch them, some people switched sports altogether.

As a coach, I see this happen in other ways, like when learning new skills. I often see people who fail to go through the steps required to master something difficult and just quit instead. They think it’s supposed to be easy, and when it’s not, they want no part of it.

Pelé is one of the best soccer players of all time and came from very humble beginnings. He first mastered his soccer skills by kicking a rolled-up sock stuffed with rags around the streets because his family didn’t have a lot of money, but Pelé didn’t let anything stop him, and he eventually set the Guinness World Record for the most goals scored in a career and is the only player to win the World Cup three times.

Pelé once said, “The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning." When you have to overcome something difficult, it makes success feel much sweeter. He also said, “Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string.”

Attack every challenge with enthusiasm, and don’t quit on the things that matter the most.

Question of the Day: How do you keep attacking difficult situations with enthusiasm?