My World Cup Journey

Four years on the roll, here comes again the world cup (you know which sport I mean here), in South Africa. June 12 to July 12, the spring festival for football fans all over the globe, let's enjoy!

Never believed before the cup and still not convinced today that South Africa would have the experience and capability to properly organize a global sport event like the world cup. The opening ceremony seemed already proving that. Well, everyone gotta have their first time and those excellent matches will eventually lure critics eyeballs away from the off-pitch.

Let's examine if my understanding of football and tipping ability still live to the promise today. Four years ago, my tipping earned me the fifth place in Viator' internal tipping competition. Today I am participating Macquarie Group's tipping comp with another 100 colleagues.

South Africa vs. Mexico

• Tipped a draw and the result is a draw. Like Mexico to win though.
• One of my all-time favorites, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, at the age of 37 helped organize the salvage goal for Mexico.

France vs. Uruguay

• Tipped Uruguay won but the result is a goalless draw. Still not believe France would have had the team morale to win, not because they lost to China in the pre-cup warm-up though.
• Both played crappy football without a clear intention to win. Understand why Uruguay would play defending football, but France was way too conservative, even when an Uruguayan was sent off. You can't make too far with this kind of tactics and guts.

Why is the cup important to me? Every four years marks a personal milestone for me. Four years ago, I was a young coder working in a ambitious travel technology company tipping the socceroos draw Croatia to qualify from the group stage. Four years after, I am working in the investment bank of the country, thinking over my own venture that is going to take place in a few months. When you are young, don't give up the opportunity to make progress, strive and develop yourself. Everyone has a gift, it is a matter of whether you realize a gift is not a gift until you take effort to uncover it. Four years is a good period range to check how your gift discovery journey is going. It is a balanced combination of micro and macro.