Reflections from a chatty taxi driver, and the success of David Moyes - the most patient man in European football
Ignore the hype, ignore the people.
As I sent an ‘end of day status update’ to my Manager and closed my laptop at 10:15pm on Wednesday this week, I was feeling hungry and exhausted.
It had been a long day and I hadn’t had a meal since about 2pm. Notwithstanding, I had something to look forward to - a ‘takeaway’ pack of beans, dodo and ofada stew that I had ordered several hours earlier was waiting for me untouched, and an Uber to get me home was waiting downstairs as well.
The plan was simple. I would devour the meal in perfect silence, and then try to see how many of my accumulated messages over the past few days I could reply during the ride home.
It was not to be. The taxi driver, a 65-ish-year-old white man was in a chatty mood.
‘Oh no’, I thought. ‘I just want to eat bro.’
Seeing that he was unrelenting (and also as the first few spoons of the amazing meal had quenched my initial hunger 😂), I stopped saying “yes” and “uhuh” and started listening properly to actually find out what he was on about. It was something like this.
TD: He’s done it! He’s finally done it!
Me: Yeah? Who did what?
TD: David Moyes has won a trophy! West Ham has won something, I can’t believe it!
Me: West Ham, really? What could they have possibly won? 😂
TD: The Europa Conference Cup! After so many years! This is great!!
We ended up having a long-ish conversation about David Moyes, West Ham, Alex Ferguson, and of course, Manchester United.
For those not in the know, Sir Alex Ferguson was Manchester United’s Manager from 1986 to 2013 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Managers of all time (Pep might have something to say about that, but that’s a separate discussion 😉).
Upon Sir Alex’s retirement, his hand-picked successor was David Moyes, a fellow Scotsman who had been Everton’s Manager for about 11 years. So much was SAF’s trust in Moyes to carry on his legacy, that he chose him over Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Jorgen Klopp, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the time.
Well, we all know what happened. United flopped under Moyes, and finished 7th place in the Premier League (lowest placement since 1990), with Moyes getting shown the door at the end of the season.
Back to the present.
10 years later, his team’s victory over Fiorentina in the Europa Conference final had given West Ham their first piece of silverware since 1980! I found the entire story fascinating, and there are three key reflections I think are noteworthy.
1 - If you want to succeed, be ready to wait
It took Flutterwave only 5 years to go from being an idea in the heads of Gbenga ‘GB’ Agboola and Iyin ‘E’ Aboyeji to Africa’s fourth unicorn (i.e. a company valued at over $1B) by 2021. For the vast majority of companies, success takes a longer time.
The same is true in the lives of people. David Moyes won his first major trophy at age 60, decades after watching his friends and colleagues win theirs.
Since getting his coaching badge at the tender age of 22, Moyes had spent 38 years watching his peers achieve success, and his “juniors” (think Zidane, Guardiola, etc) meet and surpass him in the industry. If you are frustrated about not getting your dream job after 4 years, then imagine what 4 decades of frustration must feel like!
Even in the final, West Ham’s winning goal came in the 90th minute…The key reflection for me here is to be patient. We don’t always get what we want when we want it, and the big question is whether our goals are worth pursuing.
If you genuinely believe it is worth fighting for, then give it another go. You never know when the stars might align.
2 - Ignore the hype, ignore the people
David Moyes is the exact same Manager he was 6 months ago, but all of a sudden he is being proclaimed as a legend in news stories right, left and center, and even featuring in this newsletter! Fortunately or unfortunately, people love hype in the good times, and I cannot pretend to be immune to it.
I remember experiencing this not too long ago. Only a few months into studying at a top Business school, some people suddenly started taking my ideas more seriously. I suddenly became ‘worthy’ of zoom speaking engagements, and I began to receive requests for career x academic x business advice from places I was not expecting.
But guess what…I was still the exact same person I was 3 months before! My intellect had not changed, my biases had not changed, and my experiences had not changed (yet). But now, the perception of my ‘value’ seemed to have changed. If I could be permitted to give some advice to David Moyes (who of course will not be reading this 😂) or any other person currently experiencing the ‘hype’, it would be that perceptions are transient.
As Jeff Bezons used to say at Amazon all-hands meetings,
“Look, when the stock is up 30 percent in a month, don't feel 30 percent smarter. Because when the stock is down 30 percent in a month, it's not going to feel so good to feel 30 percent dumber.”
3 - What you want may not be best for you
Imagine if a genie had told David Moyes back in 2013 that he was going to win only one major trophy for the rest of his career, and he should choose between winning it right away at Manchester United or at a mid-tier team far into the future.
He would most probably have chosen to win it right away and then retired immediately as yet another Manager that contributed to the glory of the Red Devils. But it would have been the wrong decision.
What he might not have realized in this imaginary scenario is that no matter what he achieved at United, he would have been in Sir Alex’s shadow. And even if his tenure were a phenomenal success, it would have been attributed to the legacy of his predecessor, as well as the top quality players and well-oiled infrastructure of the MUFC empire.
On the other hand, winning 10 years later with West Ham has immortalized him, and as long as West Ham’s fanbase (currenly 700,000 members in the club’s database) remains alive, his messiah status will never be forgotten. Even his kids and grand kids will likely benefit from this outcome. If you are in doubt, just watch this 21-second TikTok video of a West Ham fan in tears after the victory.
For me, it is a reminder of the following Quranic verse:
وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تَكْرَهُوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ خَيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ ۖ وَعَسَىٰٓ أَن تُحِبُّوا۟ شَيْـًۭٔا وَهُوَ شَرٌّۭ لَّكُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ وَأَنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
“…Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.”
-Surah 2 verse 216
** Jara content:
“Do you run?”
“Is this gonna lead to some Buddhist aphorism I don’t want to hear?”
“Do you run?“
“No, Phil. I don’t.”
“It’s hard. It’s suffering. It’s difficult. The illusion is that the finish line is the destination, but the act itself is the destination.”
- Phil Knight, Air
Have a great week. ✨
Insightful read! Great write up! 👏
I learnt a whole lot