Vice or Virtue? Fortune Favours the Brave
Did you know that Lionel Messi was asked to represent Spain for his national career?
No doubt, there were more chances of him succeeding in his national career, had he chosen to play for Spain - alongside his teammates from Barcelona. However, Messi chose the other path, the harder one, as it felt right for him. It is the one would eventually lead him to become the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) in football.
Choice of Hercules
This dilemma dates back to the Ancient Greek, known as the Choice of Hercules.
Long before Hercules became the hero that we know of today, he found himself at the fork in the road, contemplating about his future.
Then, two goddesses appeared before him. One, known as Vice, promised him a life filled with pleasure and no pain or suffering. And the other, known as Virtue, promised him nothing but hardships that will earn him strength and glory.
Hercules chose Virtue, went ahead to live an eventful, painful and glorious life, completing the 12 labours of Hercules, got murdered by his own wife and was taken back to Olympus by Zeus as a god.
The tale of Hercules serves a reminder for living an honourable life, which has never been relevant to the modern day, where the things that are available for our comfort and convenience gravitate us towards living an easy life, consequently, making us weak.
If Lionel Messi had played for Spain
Vicente del Bosque, the man who led Spain to their maiden FIFA World Cup glory in 2010, already offered him a spot in the Spanish team but Messi chose Argentina, having to play a few games to earn his spot in the Argentine squad.
Not only that, the path he choose has led him to multiple heartbreaking defeats, losing three Copa America finals and four World Cup finals.
Winning the world cup relies on so many things outside his control. Even if he played his best, football is a team sport and many things can go wrong. In the 2014 World Cup, despite winning the best player of the tournament, the Adidas Golden Ball, Argentina was defeated by Germany at the very last minute in the final round. It hurt him a lot.
It took him a few retirements, only for the people in his country to desperately beg him to come back, and up until the age of 34, at the edge of his career, to finally succeed with Argentina, having finally won Copa America in 2021 and the FIFA world cup in 2022.
Despite multiple criticisms and debates, it was no doubt that Messi gave his all in his last world cup appearance at the age of 35. Not only had he won that one thing he has been chasing for, he also broke multiple records along the way.
The fairy tale of Messi’s world cup truly sets an example of a glorious journey for those whom have been following him. Despite the result whether he ended up winning the World Cup or succeeding nationally or not, he had already inspired so many lives, as the reporter below said to him.
Would he have created such a story and pushed himself to this level, had he chosen the easier option to play with Spain?
Would you choose to deny your potential?
In the modern and peaceful world where the technologies and tools we built give us comfort and convenience, we become conditioned to choosing the easy option instead of the right one.
In the world full of advertising and societal pressure to conform, we’re encouraged to indulge in easy and short-term pleasures instead of facing difficult challenges.
It has never been easier to choose Vice.
However, when we choose vice, we deny our potential. We lower our standard to settle with whatever short-term reward we can easily get right now at the price of our long-term success.
We indulge in the instant pleasure to avoid the suffering and to numb the pain. However, there are no gains without pain. Growth takes place outside our comfort zone, and that involves doing things that might be uncomfortable or more difficult.
Virtue, or the path with obstacles, will not only push us to grow, to demand more from ourselves, it will also set an example to inspire others, by showing them a path to follow, regardless of the outcome.
As for Messi, Argentina finally won the world cup in 2022. There were many things that may have contributed to the memorable victory, and while some people try to find faults in it, it might just be that this time, fortune favours the brave.
