No such thing as luck - Schadenfreude edition

Here I am again, in the same room where I wrote this.  Once again, I write on my yellow-lined paper between class sessions where people congratulate each other over and over again.

My concern is with a friend who suffers and my mind is generally distracted.  As my mind wanders, it goes to a book I just finished called Brilliant Orange, by David Winner.  It made me think about mindsets.  Again, I have lingered on that topic and how it relates to raising my son.  Everything circles back to that these days.  In this case, I just don't want him to be a loser.

The book describes Dutch culture and relates it to the national soccer team, which has been devastated by crushing chokes and defeats for generations.  The crux of the book is that the Dutch play one way, and unapologetically so.  Their style is beautiful and devastating when nothing is at stake.  They do not concentrate on penalty kicks because they believe deeply in their offensive style and put all their eggs into the "win big" basket. The book succeeds by explaining Dutch cultural traits and the mindset of the citizens of Holland while applying those traits to its national-team identity. 

I have explained my position as to nature/nurture philosophies for success before.  I strongly reject notions of natural gifts as the bulk of talent.  I have always held a rather arrogant belief that people become very good at the things they care to practice.

The perfect illustration for why I do not see eye-to-eye with the mindset of Dutch soccer came from its greatest player, Johan Cruyff.  A highlight video I found on Youtube included black-and-white footage of a young Cruyff dribbling a soccer ball with abandon as a young man and bouncing it on his head as he walked.  He clearly worked his whole life to become special at his craft.  Yet, despite his clear practice and dedication to perfection, I was surprised by his explanation of the following Dutch football fiasco... (just drink in this monumental choke... Cruyff was not involved, but commented as I will explain below):



The game above was for a place in the finals of the 2000 European Championship match.  It was played in the Netherlands, so was a home game for the Orange.  It featured five (5!!!) missed penalty kicks by the home team, two in regulation and three after extra time penalty kick tie-breaker.  I learned from this book that the Dutch acknowledge that they did NOT practice penalty kicks much at all.  Of all people, Johan Cruyff, legend of the "greatest team never to win a World Cup" (they celebrate such things in the Netherlands), shrugged and said something to the effect of "you are either good at PKs or you are not." 

It was like he forgot how hard he worked.  I wanted to find Cruyff and show him his own Youtube video.