Prove Them Wrong!

Mohammed Salah aka Mo Salah, an Egyptian footballer, is expected to be named the best football player in the English Premier League (EPL) for the 2017/2018 season. He is the joint highest goal scorer in the EPL and has been consistently compared to the best footballer ever- Lionel Messi.

However, at a point while playing for Chelsea, his manager- Jose Mourinho- acclaimed as the best football manager in the world told him he was of no good and sent him away on loan.

He had been written off.

Mo Salah rebuilt his confidence, his career and stepped up his game. The rest is history. He is now wanted by the best teams in the world and his manager’s decision to let him go, made to look silly.

The story of Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Victor Moses are amazingly similar. All told they were not good enough by the supposed best manager in the world but rebuilding their careers, eradicating their mistakes and showing the world they are capable of being the best. They are now the finest footballers on the planet.

At some point, they were all written off.

Stevie Wonder is known as a living legend with many Grammy awards under his belt. Considered as one of the world’s greatest ever, he struggled whilst growing up as his voice was changing making his initial songs massive disappointments. At a point, Motown Records wanted to cancel his contract but for the intervention of American songwriter- Sylvia Rose Moy. His second album – ‘Where I'm Coming From’ was described by Aletti Vince’s thus;

‘…Steve Wonder’s lyrics were sadly undistinguished, and much of the production and arrangement is unusually self-indulgent and cluttered with effects that too often obscure the utter virtuosity of Wonder's singing… Wonder gets so hung up on exploring this virtuosity that he runs it into the ground. Failing to realize that an extravagant vocal style draws a great deal of its strength from a contrasting, coolly-controlled arrangement. Wonder tends to sink everything in thick studio veneer; the use of doubletracking for vocal self-accompaniment is especially overused… In the end, though, even vibrant vocals fail to carry the album beyond its own excesses. Quite a disappointment.’

He was written off.

You will always have doubters; they may be your superiors or persons acclaimed to be the supposed best managers. They will discountenance that you are growing and learning from your mistakes. They will forget that they likely made the same mistakes at the same point in their careers.

No one is a failure. No one is not good enough. Everyone only needs guidance. Utilise the doubts as ammunition to achieve your best. If they say you are not good enough, buckle up, take a step back, correct your mistakes and relaunch!

Leave the realm of ‘write-off’ and make them eat their doubting words!

Ayokunle Ayoko