2 years ago, a few friends and I signed up for an amateur football league in London. We initially signed up for the 6th/bottom division and soon realized that there weren’t as many teams as required to operate 6 divisions. So, all of us were lumped onto 1 division. The next misunderstanding became apparent pretty soon – the teams who participated weren’t really “amateur.”
We lost 11-0 in our first game. I’d love to say it got better. But, it didn’t. We continued losing by huge margins and our problems only increased with time. For example, our team members soon lost interest in showing up on a freezing Saturday morning and getting thrashed (imagine that). After a particularly bad 15-0 defeat, we decided to call it quits. Our average score in the 10 or so matches we played was a 11-0 defeat.
Just yesterday, a friend (from this football team) and I exchanged emails and laughed about our 11-0 defeats. As I was thinking about it, I realized that I learnt a lot from that experience. First, it was a true test of willpower to wake up and head half way across London on a cold and rainy Saturday morning knowing fully well that a 11-0 thrashing awaited us. Second, I tried really hard to make the best of it – even resorting to send “a learning a week” emails to motivate the team after a particularly bad thrashing. It didn’t work.
And, perhaps, the attempt not working was the most important learning of all. We realized we were completely out-classed and would never be good enough. We just needed to call it quits and go home.
Sometimes, that’s as good a lesson to learn as any.
A Learning a Day 