Stepping into My Passion

I’ve heard many great people say that every step taken in the direction of your heart, opens up a whole world beyond what our eyes can see.  For so many of us, there have been times when there is something our heart is screaming for however we just don’t move, we don’t take those steps.  It was back in 2006 that my heart was screaming for me to do something meaningful in India, but I didn’t even take a single step. Not until 2007 when I booked my first flight to the country with no intention, but just to explore. And now 8 years later, I’m living in India, serving as Director of the country’s leading football consultancy and part of an incredible community of people. It just takes that first step.

Now I’ve embarked on another journey, by taking the first step.  For the past  year or so, my heart has been screaming that I should be more involved in the social responsibility side of football.  Not that I want to get away from what I’m doing at Libero Sports, I’m just looking to integrate CSR through football into my every day business. 

The leaders in social development through football is a Berlin, Germany group called Street Football World founded and led by Jurgen Griesbeck and Johannes Axster.  I’ve known these two for the past few years and have always been impressed with who they are as people, the type of work they engage in and the massive global network they have created – 108 NGOs across 60 countries.

The day that I decided I wanted to get serious about my intention, I picked up the phone and called Jurgen and we explored opportunities to work more closely together to positively impact the world through football.  At the end of our conversation, he invited me to spend a couple of days with him and his team in their Berlin office.

Now there would be times when I would just take that invitation and place it in my “one day” list knowing that there would be a strong possibility of it never happening.  Instead, I chose to make it a priority and found a way to carve out a few extra days after my London meetings to hop over to Berlin to spend time with the Street Football World Team.

I’m actually just on the flight from Berlin heading to Abu Dhabi for a quick layover before my final leg to Delhi.  I’m feeling so happy that I chose to take that “step” and visit the office. Over the course of two days, I not only had the opportunity to deep dive into the world of development through football and build out some tangible ways for Libero Sports and Street Football World to work together in Asia, I fully re-charged my professional batteries which powers the excitement and intensity surrounding my work. 

I don’t know what this “step” to the Street Football World offices in Berlin will ultimately lead to and what possibility has been created, but I can confidently say that it was a certainly a step worth taking.

With Johannes (l) and Jurgen (r) - founders of Street Football World