I watched the David Beckham Documentary on Netflix, and here are the 5 lessons I learned from it…
As a teenager, I was a huge soccer fan! Beckham was one of my favorite players! His free kicks, his passes, his shots… It was unique!
Well, I don’t follow soccer as much nowadays, but how can I forget the golden age when we still had Zidane, Ronaldo (the Brazilian), Roberto Carlos, Figo, Henry and all the legends… Everyone was different!
What I retain from this documentary…
💎 The importance of entourage:
The strongest part of this documentary is to see how important his family and teammates were in his hard times.
As he himself says, without this entourage, he would have been broken.
Going from national hero to public enemy can go fast!
When an entire nation has harassed him for a mistake he made when he was young, that’s when you realize that fanaticism really is a problem!
He didn’t respond at the same level as the attacks, and he continued to train to get to the top level despite the criticism, the attacks, the threats…
Related to point 1: The public’s opinion is one thing, but only your intimate relationships count, especially when your club of heart transfers you overnight (business is business, loyalty isn’t always present in business).
He says it himself at the end, he lost himself when he was thinking only of himself, and found himself when he was thinking of his family.
💎 Creating the new self, reinventing himself:
I remember when he changed his hairstyle and attitude, and went from a very talented boy to the man who carries the team.
I didn’t catch it at the time, but you can see it in his look, his attitude (in addition to the style that interested the media), he Level Up creating a new persona.
💎 Building on strengths and talents:
Beckham wasn’t the fastest, most technical, most physical player… But he had a legendary kick ! Some of his free-kicks made history. He knew how to pass the ball on the head or foot of the world’s best strikers.
He also always demonstrated a great work ethic, always being at training even when he was left out of the group.
💎Investing for the long term:
It’s been glossed over, but the entrepreneur in me had been following his investment in the American league and his big move not to take the money right away but to invest for the long term.
Then Messi arrived in Miami, but it’s still too early for that part of the story…
I love documentaries about artists, athletes, entrepreneurs…
Even though it’s obviously romanticized and partly marketing (I have nothing against that), it reminds us that no success was achieved without certain prices, sacrifices, mindset and entourage…