More Than One Way

There is more than one way.

Aaron and Jay are two childhood friends who wanted to make it big in life. Unlike other children of their age, money was not their goal. Both wanted to play international football and make their country proud. They were called for school level tryouts and passed with flying colours. Soon with their hard work, sacrifice, and determination, the school-level wins became district level wins and then became national level wins.

Two weeks into giving their tryouts for their national team for the world cup selection Jay dropped out from football entirely. His parents forced him to go look for a job. His parents can't be blamed for this. His family was struggling along on his father's single income. His mind filled with disappointment, Jay took up a job and did business on the side.

Meanwhile, Aaron got selected for the national team. However, his team did not perform well in the world cup and did not get selected for the playoffs. Aaron returned to his country upset and exhausted. He had no backup plan for a job or any other goal in life. He reached his beloved friend Jay for advice. Soon Aaron joined and became a partner in Jay’sp company. They were building apps and selling them to software companies.

In a couple of years, they were able to make lots of money. Jay’s family became stable financially. Jay got excited when his parents allowed him to play football again.

"Let’s go what we were born for man. Let's give this year’s world cup tryouts a shot", said Jay. Aaron replied, "It's no use man! I have seen the potential of our players. They have talent, yes but they are not good enough to become big in the world cup. We will get disappointed in the end. I have faced it before. It was horrible."

Jay became confused and tried to convince Aaron, "Man, you are the one who builds up this dream. You can’t give up on your dream. On our dream. This is what we have. This is all that we had. The company and the business is just a means to earn some money. Now we have the goal to pursue." Aaron got hyper and argued, "The goal to pursue? Man are you living in the same world as I am? Look around you! Look at us! You are totally out of shape, I now have a pot belly! We do not have what it takes Jay, believe me".

The argument went on for hours. Finally, Aaron said, "Fine, if you think we can't win this world cup then so be it! If we can't become what we wanted to become in this life then we will help others with the same dream. "What?", Jay screamed."Look, Aaron, you made it clear that we have no future in football anymore. Then why can't we help others with the same dream? We have enough money now. We can build an academy. Train the enthusiasts and send them to… I don't know a world cup which will happen 8 years from now."

Aaron replied," Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself? I mean how do we do it? How do we start? Whom do we contact? ". Aaron’s became nervous. Jay clasped his shoulders and asked him to calm down. Jay said, "We had the same dilemma when we chose football as a career and I would say we were 50% successful in it. Now let's do the rest 50% and change the fate of football for our country".

Reading the last page from Jay’s diary Luke become emotional. The country’s national football captain was determined to win the cup.

A few weeks back, Aaron, the national team football trainer asked a disheartened Luke to go meet Jay for some advice. Luke was disappointed after barely making it into the world cup playoffs. He did not have the confidence that his team would win the cup.

Upon meeting Jay, the team’s head coach gave him his diary to read. He gave it on condition that he would read it only after reaching the final four in the tournament.

Luke said, " We barely made it to the playoffs sir. How can we possibly make it to the final four?"

"An elephant does not know its strength until it utilizes its full potential". Jay said this smilingly and walked out of the room.