The Philosophy of Success

Christian Ziege is a retired German football legend and is currently the Head Coach for FC Pinzgau Saalfelden. He started his playing career at Bayern Munich, where he won two Bundesliga titles and a UEFA Cup before moving to A.C. Milan, winning an Italian Scudetto.

His career as a professional footballer went through Bayern Munich (1990-1997), A.C. Milan (1997-1999), Middlesbrough (1999-2000), Liverpool F.C. (2000-2001), Tottenham Hotspur (2001-2004) and returned to Germany with Borussia Mönchengladbach in June 2004 before announcing his retirement in October 2005. I had the privilege to watch Christian Ziege play during the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea. Aside from his play on the field, his mohawk was one of the most memorable World Cup haircuts of all time.

The audio recording is from a recent call with coach Christian Ziege. He spoke about his philosophy of success, which I believe applies to sports and beyond. In a similar case, I think many startups fail due to lack of teamwork and lack of transparency more so than due to lack of financial capital—something to remind ourselves as entrepreneurs.

"I'm talking about the greenkeeper, the owners, about the board, about the coach, the assistant coach, the players, the guy who's washing the clothes. If you want to reach something, if you want to have success in this club, and this is all we want to have. We all have to stick together and go in the same direction."

Stay in the deep end.

Data visualization of the Austrian Regionalliga

The Austrian Regionalliga (which means Regional League) is the third-highest division in Austrian football, after the Austrian Bundesliga and the Second League. It is divided into three groups: East (Ost), covering the states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland; Central (Mitte), covering the states of Styria, Carinthia, Upper Austria and the exclave of East Tyrol; and Eliteliga West, covering the states of Salzburg, Tyrol (with the exception of East Tyrol) and Vorarlberg.

--from Wikipedia

Here's a data visualization demo of Regionalliga division leaders from 2019/2020 season.