But in 4th grade we got a new partner. Without our even thinking about it or asking for it, he took the position that nobody wanted to play: goalkeeper! We had never seen him play but losing another year wasn’t going to make us feel any worse.
However, that year thanks to his truly amazing goalkeeping skills he made us win the 3 games we had to play and become the champions of the year. From that moment until we finished school in sixth grade (3 championships in a row), we were champions in every soccer tournament and played really well.
This simple story marked many of us who were part of that group of “losers” that for three years lost every game they played, but as soon as we were able to incorporate this new teammate, we were able to change the result. With his contribution to the team, he made us all play better.
This taught us several things:
- Sometimes we look down on people (often just because they are new) and think they have nothing to contribute to our team/group (work or whatever) and we miss out on the contribution a new person can make.
- Sometimes when a group is together for a long time and things do not go as we want, what we need to succeed is a new person, with the desire to do things well, with new ideas, with new ways of doing things, a change that encourages us all to do things better.
- Sometimes you must make sacrifices and do the things that no one else wants to do so that the whole team can succeed.
Many teams need a person who can make others feel safe and make them better. When you get that person on your team who can give that to the other members of your team, you will be closer than ever to being able to achieve the goal you wanted.
Of course: never underestimate anyone, not even the newest…
