Star,Role Player or Leader?

One of the greatest flaws of Caribbean people is that we are terrible role players. Everyone wants to star at everything and the bottom line is we can’t all be stars and each in turn need to look at ourselves and the areas that we are in and check if we are the stars. If you realize you are the star the next thing you should check is whether you are also the leader because a lot of times a star isn’t necessarily a leader.

In a team the leader very often isn’t the best at tasks the team needs to complete, rather a leader understands how each member of a team needs to work in order for the team to thrive and be successful. A star very often is highly talented at the role he/she is given and exceeds the standards of the team but normally is a self-centered personality who is driven by ego and self-assurance.

Having a star is a great thing if each other member knows how to play a role so that the team performs above expectation however it can be a great hindrance if others who are not stars are convinced they are and drag down the entire team by trying to exceed their role and failing dragging the team down and causing resentment and irrational argument among other members.

On so many occasions I've seen teams formed with good intentions fail because Caribbean people are so stubborn and do not understand the concept of being a role player and the concept of team synergy.

Are you a star, a role player or a leader? Check yourself

Talent.....we got that

Coming off Sunday where I watched Cam Newton continue to be a sulk on the Panthers bench and then give the whiniest presser after the game I've ever seen I wanted to talk about talent. Everyone has talent of some sort; some a lot more than others but what really matters is your ability to use your talents effectively.

All talent isn't the same, some people’s talent is mental and is shown in their ability to think quickly and solve problems effectively and some have physical talent which seems to be either instinctive or physical gifts a person is just born with like height, speed and natural strength.

If you have ever  faced an opponent with both greater mental and physical talent you would know the feeling of helplessness that comes from that type of competition barring a miracle you probably cannot beat a person with both talents in the area that they are talented in.

Now don’t take talent so literally that you think a talented person will win at anything because this is not the case. A person talented physically and mentally in a sport most likely will lose in a baking contest against someone who is good in that area. This is to say each person should find what area they are talented in and pursue and perfect that talent.

In many cases my observation has been that most people lack one of either physical or mental talent which leads to very frustrating people, especially when the lacking talent is mental. My talent feels more mental than physical and interacting with a person whose talent is only his/her instinctive reactions to situations is one of the most frustrating feelings. You sit there wishing you had their gifts cause of how much better you could use them. Talented individuals who do not have the mental talent constantly try to star while making mistakes perceived as simple mental errors by mentally talented people causing massive frustration which is hardly ever understood by the physically talented individual.

Going in a slightly different direction there are those of us who are mentally talented but choose to waste it by being lazy. When I think about it, being talented but lazy is far worse than being talented but unable to fully realize it because of lack of brain cells. Also those of greater mental talent need to be more understanding that a person who isn't as smart finds it a lot more difficult to understand things and fail to see a subject from as many angles as they can.

Whether it is physical or mental talent, find a way to use your talent to the best of your ability and enjoy the talent given to you whether you believe it be through biology or higher power.

Where can I buy some motivation?

This particular speech has probably been recited to me by people a couple 100 times. Be motivated, do what you have to do so you can get to where you want to be, work hard, do it whether you like it or not.

I do far too much thinking and way to little actual doing on a regular basis, but the problem comes down to motivation. I don't feel the drive to do anything, I don't see the need to become a doctor, lawyer, accountant or whatever other ridiculously mundane and uninteresting thing that humans have developed into paying occupations over the course of our existence.

The only motivations that occur to me throughout the day are: 1. Eating 2. Sleeping 3. Playing video games 4. Playing Sports 5. Sex
I will spend days on end procrastinating on doing something (like this blog) and when I finally do it I spend maybe 10 minutes and then put it off for another time. Yes, I would like to be successful in life but I just cannot seem to shake the habit of not feeling any sort of motivation to do anything, sloth has the firmest of all grips on my entire existence and I know I'm an intelligent person with potential which makes me extremely disgusted with myself but not even this disgust motivates me to change.

Of course some religious person would say "blah blah its the devil and you need christ hes the only way to change, rainbows, fairy tales and all that jazz but when I really think about it logically really rich successful people do not give a single damn about a person praying to God to guide their life cause they are too busy grinding and laughing at the bank.

Maybe motivation is ingrained in a persons DNA and I just don't have that particular strand. The bottom line here is I need to find out my motivation so I can drop 6 figures into my bank account instead of having to serve beers at some shitty bar with a shitty supervisor.

There's nothing I hate more than working for people and helping to build their dreams when I could be building my own dreams.

Animals and Me

Yesterday I saw a post from a friend on my facebook timeline, it was a majority of peoples abject horror at a group of people supposedly in Trinidad posing and taking photos with Leatherback sea turtles. Animals are a touchy topic for the greater part of the population.

Then there’s me, I can watch animal planet, Nat geo or Discovery Channel all day and enjoy learning about the ways of nature. However I think peoples outrage at the turtle photos are a little over the top. The comments make it seem like the people were posing with machetes just having massacred every leatherback they could get their hands on. Some of you go too far, like those turtles are your immediate family. I don’t go out of my way to be cruel to animals (throwing my cat off my bed, kicking my cat off my leg maybe) but calm down of your crazy animal lover insanity.

The Zoo I notice some of you hate Zoo’s “ZOMG that animal is in a cage boohoo he should be free”. Seriously? Who cares…..It’s like food processing; no one wants to see the process a burger goes through to reach their plates but will eat 4 of them at your barbeque. A Zoo is a place where you can go to see animals you would otherwise be unable to see, Zoos spend a lot taking care of those animals and it’s not like they are keeping the whole species locked up. If you hate to see animals locked up here’s a tip, don’t go to the damn Zoo.

Whale Hunting/ Dolphins I hope the Japanese kill a whole group of those people from whale wars lemme just put that out there. If a species of whale is not endangered why shouldn’t the Japanese hunt them? Of course hunting an animal to extinction is foolish but if the animal is in abundance then by all means kill and eat. Dogs/Cats “If you were an animal” well guess what…..I’m not. People have this ridiculous notion where they love animals more than their fellow man. I’m no Christian but didn't God give the beasts of the earth for labor and for food? Animals are not on our level, they do not have or deserve rights.

It is man’s prerogative on how to treat an animal. I cannot treat my cat like I would treat another person, my cat tears up the trash trying to get at scraps AFTER I already fed him a full meal. The only reason we keep pets is 1. Pest control (rats, mice etc.) 2. Companionship – If you are lonely enough to have your dog or cat on a human level you need friends, seriously get friends. Many dogs have come through my life from infant to adult and I loved them all but surgical procedures, making an animal vegetarian, a separate house for your pet is just going too far.

Animal Experimentation New drugs generally go through many clinical trials and tests before they become mainstream. Would you rather we a. experiment on labrats or monkeys or b. experiment on living breathing human beings. I for 1 prefer animals to take that bullet. So while you protest outside like the pharmaceutical company is the umbrella corporation I’m happy at home knowing a tiny mouse melting into a pool of broken chemical bonds, mutating into a slightly bigger mouse or simply getting a tan is happening rather than the zombie apocalypse cause they were testing the T-Virus on humans first.

Game Analysis: Antigua & Barbuda (Benna Boyz) vs USA

In probably the most watched game ever by Antiguan standards the USA topped us 3-1 in our first world cup, Concacaf group A qualifier. Firstly as a former goal keeper myself I’ll start on Molvin James our 5’8 starting keeper. Positively, he saved us from maybe taking a 5 or 6-1 loss with a few brilliant reflexive saves, it is important you emphasize ‘reflexive’ because honestly his ability as a keeper is almost all quick reflex. Molvin had no real command of his box; many of those parried shots weren’t even strong efforts and should’ve been held onto. Also why wouldn’t he change his studs, he slipped at least 6 times that I counted on the wet pitch.

In the Antigua defence 3 out our 4 defenders IQ at marking a forward or midfielder was awful. Defending a player doesn’t mean constantly going to ground at his feet to tackle. Yes Donovan is a world class player, very quick and has lots of tricks but Antigua’s defensive players are not slow keeping a striker in front of you shouldn’t have been so difficult. Our defence was still relatively solid barring one factor, CLEARING! You have got to clear the ball from danger and take pressure off yourself better as a defender, heading the ball clear or kicking the ball far up the field was lacking in the defence and at least 2 goals were scored as a result of poor clearances. Midfield, this is where we are absolutely abysmal. Yes Antigua is small but out of our 86,000 we can’t find a midfielder who plays with his head? A midfielder who can hold up the ball and spot outlet passes to the wings or upfront to our forwards? Murtagh, Robinson and Leigterwood are clearly not it when it comes to passing in the midfield all that needs to be said is we had time since facing Haiti to resolve this problem of no midfield presence and nothing has been done. Besides the pass to Byers in which Byers did all the work himself to score.

I didn’t even notice Tamarley ‘Ziggy’ Thomas was even on the pitch. Randolph ‘Etty’ Burton on the other hand constantly looked overwhelmed by the moment, a bunch of nervous touches that resulted in miscontrolling the ball or over hit passes. Finally our forwards, Dexter Blackstock is not the answer for us upfront. I haven’t seen him much so I can only go on what I saw in this match, he’s not very fast, doesn’t really make great runs to move the defence, is not very strong physically on the ball and doesn’t have a strikers awareness. Peter Byers on the other hand is big, strong, fast and has the presence of a front man, also when he came on he singlehandedly raised the level of the entire team. All in all it was a proud day for Antigua and we were on ESPN so there’s that, but I feel like we could’ve won that game 1-0 because USA was sloppy and looked unfit and we gave away 3 soft goals.