Cristiano Ronaldo is the developer in the next room

Developers should resonate with Cristiano Ronaldo and here is why?

It’s common practice to examine and study the lives of famous people from sports to learn lessons from them and their lives to improve the general practices of life for common people. Specially in the US it is very common to write and read books about famous basketball coaches, players and … and people read them to learn from their skills of perseverance, dedication and leadership. Sports are highly competitive, mentally challenging, physically hard and professionals in it are good candidates to study.

For some parts of the worlds and in middle east which I live, soccer is the most followed sport and these days are particularly hot due to the Copa America and Euro games. The super famous and great player Cristiano Ronaldo is again in the news due to his harsh reactions after their game with Iceland and again everybody is talking about his personality. <IMHO>Taking a look at Ronaldo and his personality is very useful to understand the lives of game developers </IMHO>

Who is Ronaldo?

Ronaldo is a highly competitive , hardworking and skilled man who doesn’t accept anything less than perfect. He is always amazed by his good actions and angry with the bad ones of himself and his team alike. Sometimes he is angry, sad and well, harsh! Ronaldo mostly works alone and places a high value in himself.

Did it sound partially familiar? I know a group of people who always try to be the best, do their best, don’t fake, are super honest and some of them can become harsh sometimes as well (unfortunately). Yes developers.

Ronaldo is finishing his 3-4 years of his career (aged 31) and want to achieve as much as he can and he did not come here easily or for free. I’m not trying to put green light on any of his bad behaviors or advertise any jerks or bad behavior as good or show them ok. But I think there is a group of people both in professional developers and sportsmen which are silenced by the majority and they are shown in an image which they don’t deserve. Bosses are always the bad guy, hardworking developers sometimes become isolated. Taking it serious is considered an attribute which many would like to talk about but being serious when it matters is not a task which you find many doing. Integrity is only good to talk about as prestige but it’s something that people don’t have with excuses like ,I did not know, it was hard , it didn’t matter and you are taking it serious …

Yes there are countless situations which bosses abuse their staff, there are many jerks (some good coders, some not) which are making it worse for everyone in a team and countless teams are ruined because of them. BUT the fact is that many other people and behaviors are considered bad or judged wrongly because of this.

Ronaldo should NOT say what he said about Iceland and its people. But why he did that? He should not scream at his teammates. But why he does? I accept that when you do bad action, it is bad action regardless of the intentions or … Sociologists say correctly that sociology is not excusology. The fact is there is things in the society which help things like this happen and we can make them less. Another fact is that we simply don’t deserve anything in other people’s lives and should not try to push them toward our liking or advantage.

When there is internal and external demand and pressure for being right, doing right and do it as best as possible, things become hard. People which usually take these to themselves are those who have big egos , are hardworking, have good intensions most of the times and are fighting for great reasons and are motivated by many things which they value. Society usually thinks otherwise. Many people use these people as tools to show themselves as their victims to take advantage of them. Many will try to go up the ladder using these people and in our industry simply people take advantage of their knowledge, credibility or power and influence (some of these are harder to do in football).

When someone becomes very skilled and very good at something, it has a reason, the reason usually is hard work and dedication and general goodness and not luck or a gift from childhood. There is a reason that many just have alibies about not becoming as good as them. Everybody loves the result of being Ronaldo or Abrash if you will but not everybody is going to want it using the right way. Insidentally these people can become victims of others which want to gain from their hard work. It is good when we encounter such people and sometimes behaviors from them which seem to be because of selfishness, being unkind, harsh or outside/inside pressure, we ask ourselves, am I a part of the problem, am I capable of being a part of a solution? Am I are someone pushing him toward something, Am I trying to manipulate him, is anyone else doing so? It’s easy to show someone with your finger, categorize and dehumanize them and sometimes some people really belong to the category of bad people but regarding people which are highly motivated and skilled and are perfectionists, it’s not usually the case. They are weird many times but usually good habits add up and bad ones do to. I don’t mean any highly skilled person is better than the none skilled one. Not at all but I’m saying usually skilled people at least had some values and principles to be there. Exceptions exist and people change too. Also situations can cause one time things as well. But usally They simply have too much on their plate. They are taking the responsibility of much more than 5 of us do. They want to do the best and try to do it really. They are human, they make mistakes. It’s easy to fall in the trap of using them when we need them or take advantage of them and simply throw them away. I’m talking about the Ronaldo which is working in the next room.

I’m sure alongside of Ronaldo sometimes feel very alone, they love to see someone come to them just for the Cristiano the man, not for CR7 , not for Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid or the best player in the world. They love that! But they are not that, Ronaldo at his mind and in his life is just Cristiano the man. There are multiple articles about loneliness of being at the top and the fact is that in our industry it happens a lot that there are fellows, team members and sometimes even bosses/leaders/managers which are in their place because of something and they are abused a lot, they are shown in bad image to make smaller people look bigger. People make acts to show themselves as their victims. People use their enthusiasm and honesty and most of the times pure honesty to get to their personal goals. AND THIS IS VERY SAD! Usually in great teams, many of the members are from these stars. Some of them are in fact never unkind or harsh or … but they are serious when they are at work. Often these big egos are big but when they break, they easily break and repairing them is much harder than the ego which break 20 times a day or 5 times a year.

I’ve had the privilege of knowing and working with some of these people over time and without wanting to cover bad behaviors of anyone I would like to ask anyone to think twice when dealing with such people which in my opinion are amazing and lovely. Honest as much as a child, as hardworking as the most hardworking of all, usually with good thoughts and big hearts which they might not open every day but is there. Please value the Cristiano Ronaldo which is working in the next room!

P.S I’m not a fan of Ronaldo, My favorite soccer player was Del Piero and love Juventus and Italy’s national team (other than local stuff).