Sagacious Schumi

Sagacious Schumi

I always didn’t want to make my blog an editorial one! For the simple reason that to report what happened, is done extensively by the media and its stupid for me to do it with little inputs. But I just cannot stop writing about what I saw yesterday. I saw attitude. I saw determination to win. To sum it all up I saw what Success means. Success according to me as I have already written about, means Consistency. Being consistent in whatever you do best.

In the arena of sports if ever a game became dull because someone won repeatedly and the game hence became so predictable ,that game is none other than the invigorating Formula One till 2 years back(Both invigorating and dominating only then :)! .To my knowledge the epitome’s of consistency in sports were 4 Men- Sachin, Tiger woods ,Lance Armstrong and the invincible Schumi. Atleast they are the ones I knew and admired.

And I just want to untiringly admire Schumi in this blog for the simple reason that he retired yesterday. Retired with pride and sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction to both his fans and himself.

I just wanted to analyse what was so special about his Man that he made me write so much about him. Considering the fact that I have been watching Formula One only for the past 2 years. The two years when Schumi’s career started to fade! There are lessons to learn from him here..

Lesson No.1 –Never Give up.

In the last race of his life Schumi to all his fans disappointment started 10th in the grid. As he started the race with just two laps completed he raced to 6th position and before I could even believe his agileness he was behind Fisecella and fighting with him for the fifth place. And Man another misfortune he had his tyres burnt and went to his pit before even finishing 5 laps and had a tyre change. I thought he was going to retire from the race but he came out of the pit and believe me he was the last on the grid and heights he was already a close back marker to the race leader Massa. I just felt so bad because I didn’t want him to retire at such a disgrace. I was 100% sure he would have reached the podium had he not burnt his tyres .I switched off my TV set and started browsing on my laptop.

But although my Man was no way expected to get even any points for his constructor I was still tempted to switch On my TV again and see him for one last time driving. And what was I seeing. Schumi was on 8th position and within minutes threateningly close to becoming 6th on the track racing past raikonen on 7th. And there were 17 people on the track by then. Imagine the grit, from 18th to 8th in some 30 laps consedering 5 of them were laps with safety cars on the track and obviously didnt allow any overtaking!. I just felt in the final few laps that this guy shouldn’t retire and should win next years championship! That’s whom you call a Hero. And that’s why Ganguly isn’t called one.

And as the race ended I was so happy and proud because Schumi ended racing past the guy who was the reason behind his first pit shop. Inspite of never being a race leader this guy was fastest on the circuit twice beating his own time!! From 10 to 6 to 18 to 4. I just don’t have words to express this spirit. I just want to salute this Great sportsman. He just dominated the sport and retired with honour.

Lesson No.2- You should know when to retire with honour.

I think it’s very important to have this skill. I have seen so many people who inspite of being very successful in life ended their career with a disgrace simply because they didn’t know when to call it a day. I have two examples that strike me now! No prizes for guessing the first- Ganguly and the second Vajpayee. And this is one reason I want to admire Schumi. Because its so tempting to quit something you were a leader in. After all the more you play the more you earn!

Lesson No.3 – Fight for a comeback.

Be it yesterday’s race or this formula one season, Schumi for me came from no where. Alonso was becoming slowly but surely the next invincible chap. And imagine the Japan Grand prix that might have given Alonso sleepless nights! Taking pole but schumi was so unlucky. I am saying this because a Ferrari Engine failure was history. But it did happen on the penultimate race of the season and Schumi’s career! But salute to the hero who came back strong and made everyone believe this guy still has potential!

And I don’t want to write about my other heroes –Tiger Woods, Sachin and Lance Armstrong. You know why they are called heroes now!