Live India, Love Football

One of my least favorite times of the year is the first week back in India after returning from my annual trip to the US and UK. It’s not that I don’t want to be back, it’s just that those first few days are usually spent in a jet lagged, semi depressed stupor while trying to cope with the old, but new chaos of India and the always reliable August monsoons. During those days I remain open to signs from God; something that reminds me that my purpose at this stage in my life is to be in India working on developing football. It’s crazy that during those days I have to convince myself of this because my heart already knows this fact as it’s my heart which usually does most of the talking about why I’m still in India when I answer this question to the hordes of people who ask me this during my Western tour.  Although my heart is aware of my purpose, my head is usually so full of noise and confusion during these days that convincing the chattering voice seems necessary for any comfort ...

I just returned to India after being on the road for 33 days and am feeling incredibly proud of myself.  Now being on the road for 33 days is not that spectacular especially if you are in sports marketing, an actor or rockstar on tour. Now I’m definitely not an actor or rockstar but as a sports marketing person I should be used to being on the road for this long as so many of my industry peers leave their homes and come back many months later after putting together major events like the FIFA World Cup, Olympics or Asian Games.  I wasn’t part of any major global events team yet I’m still proud of myself.  The reason I’m proud of myself is that over the course of the past month and three days I was somehow able to balance my life in a way where I could spend quality time with high profile professional contacts, friends and family in 10 cities across the US and Europe.  Quality, quality time, not just fly by conversations or small talk at a hospitality event where...