As an athlete before, I sometimes wonder why I didn’t make the choice to turn professional or at least give a shot at professional training. Looking back on the years now, I must say that having chosen to focus on my studies though being the more pragmatic choice, did not necessarily reflect what I wanted to do. We all only live once and we all only have that one chance in life to truly excel in a sport we passionately believe in. Yet, to so many of us, it only dawns on us after we’ve gone past our peak that the time is long gone and basking in old glories of the yesteryear do nothing but fuel our already bloated egos. Instead, I feel in retrospect that I should have tried my hand at turning professional and despite failure, would have been able to move forward without thinking about the “what ifs”. How many times in our lives do we regret or wish we can turn back the clock, only to realise that we truly only live once and once gone, the opportunity very seldom comes about again.
It is at this juncture that I hope this article reaches out to the many young athlete readers out there. If you think you have a chance at turning professional, go for it. The truly great people are those who didn’t follow the tarmac road but instead chose the path less travelled. The courage and passion required to brave the elements, the pain, to sweat blood and tears for what you believe in already defines a successful sports person. There’s no need to be another Carl Lewis, Roger Federer or even a Thierry Henry to be successful, the path to success comes from taking that initial step. Whatever happens thereafter really depends on how strong you are mentally and whether you can brave the problems that come your way. Nothing in life is easy, whether you’re working or trying to strive for sporting excellence, its all the same. In fact, sports builds such a strong character that if on the most unfortunate note you are unable to fully become professional, you will realise that you’re more than well equipped to deal with the problems of the working society.
Never give up my young athletic friends out there in Singapore, one day, we will have our own professional athletes scaling the highest peaks of sporting excellence as its already starting to take shape, we simply need to dig deep, perservere and believe that person will be you.
