In the flow or how I felt the lightness of being.
I grew up as a street footballer. Lothar Emmerich and Siggi Held were my role models. In 1966, BVB with Germany’s first European Cup success and then the World Cup in England.
I was a goal-getter, deliberate and ice-cold in front of goal. At our games on the football pitch, I was always one of the first to be voted into the team.
However, the structure in the club was difficult for me. Full-back didn’t suit me. And I didn’t score any more goals for the time being. Not a single one. And so, at the age of thirteen, disappointed with football, I switched to table tennis.
At the age of 16, I switched back to football. My club, Sportclub Lindenhof, built up a new U17 juniors team and actively approached me. Finally, I was allowed to play my favorite role as a striker.
My breakthrough came in our first game in pre-season against SF Obertalheim from the northern Black Forest. The game was 50 years ago and yet I can still see the scene in front of me today. My first club goal.
The through ball came in time in front of the halfway line, so that offside was ruled out. Alone, I ran towards the opposing goalkeeper and kicked the ball past him on the right into the corner of the goal. The score was 1-0. And I was surprised at how easy it was for me to score that goal.
We won 3-1 in the end and I also scored the other two goals. My amazement at the ease of scoring goals has remained in my memory to this day. The season was fantastic. I scored a total of 28 goals in all competitions. I was in the flow.
What I took with me at a young age and later actually experienced again in the business:
✳️ The fact that there is such a thing as a flow, where one sense of achievement leads to the next sense of achievement and where everything you do feels right.
✳️ Don’t expect it to go on like this forever, because every winning streak comes to an end at some point. And you should be prepared for that.
And so it happened. Unfortunately, the season did not have a happy ending. In the end, we finished runners-up, although we had the championship in mind until the last matchday. I also learned a lot from that. The continuation of this story can be found here: Angstgegner – a German word, hard to translate, something like an opponent, that scares me – Prepare4Landing
➡️ Do you know that too? To be in the flow? In sports or in business? Feel free to leave a comment.
My name is Bernd Scharbert and I write about experiences that can be transferred from football to business life. If you’re interested, feel free to follow me at LinkedIn, #fussballmeetsbusiness or visit my blog there at #Prepare4Landing
