I happened to have stumbled onto an interesting contrast in cultures when recently speaking to two separate friends, one in Brazil and the other in Belfast. The topic was family and I had relayed that my 8 year old twins recently began tryouts for the local travel soccer/football club. They’ve been playing on “recreational” teams since the age of 5 so this was a natural step forward in their participation in a sport they’ve taken to with gusto.
In each case I was surprised to learn there were no equivalent organized sports in these foreign lands at such an age. Organized play would not begin for a few years hence, perhaps in middle school. This was a rather remarkable difference considering the universal nature of child enrollment in such organized sport- be it soccer, baseball, dancing, lacrosse, football, karate… even Irish step dancing – across the states. I’d taken it as a given I suppose and realised I’d just learned yet another lesson in how cultures can differ in such subtle but meaningful ways.
I’m not the sort to make judgments on these things, particularly given the thoughtful criticisms that have been levied against the hyper structured lives many Americans foist upon their children. But it gave me pause when these conversations later turned to hiring. We’ve recently hired a slew of US college grads and I remarked upon how impressive the field of candidates had been. Not merely academically qualified, the pack of resumes was filled with accomplishments in sport, in charity work, in job experience, and in personal leadership across these fields and others. It was a remarkably competitive bunch, and one these friends lamented they’d be hard pressed to find without a fairly extensive search in their native lands.
Granted there’s a bit of sampling bias here- my company’s brand and investment in recruiting is able to attract talent from some of the best of our universities, a blessing my two entrepreneur friends don’t enjoy. Nevertheless the conversations furthered my convictions that the US is among the more capable nations in producing grads with a competitive nature and a hunger for success, and I suspect there’s no small degree of correlation with that and the tender age at which we introduce our kin to these competitive pursuits.
So among the investments to bolster the fortunes of its fine citizens and long term viability of its economy, perhaps the likes of INI should consider a new sort of development plan. Building a youth soc…. pardon me, football program might produce a new generation of leaders bold enough to change NI’s position on the global league tables. Get that 5 year old out on the pitch, the game of life needs her to bring her A game.