Show your hand

SHOW YOUR HAND

The hand is the symbol of strength and during military combat the commander can use a singular hand motion to activate an attack or stop one. During the gladiatorial days, the Emperors  will either thumb up or down to decide the fate of the loser of a fight. It was not unusual in those days to see rulers or emperors bring their sons to the Colosseum to witness their exhibition of authority over human life, in some instances, they would call their son to thumb up or down to ascertain whether  he can rule or whether he can make life and death decisions. If the ruler or emperor has two sons, the one who can show his hand has the most likelihood of succession

Therefore, the ability to show your hand is emblematic of how to take an opporotunity which which might be life changing. Sometimes, the least significant task which receives the best shot, can be the chance of a lifetime. It is the threshold between obscurity to fame.

 

However, from the preface, it is apparent that this blog is not about people who have leadership thrust on them on a platter of gold, but people who showed their hand when it was required. I will use the perfect example of Darren Fletcher of Manchester United and a bit of my personal experiences.

DARREN FLETCHER

Was a player despised by the Manutd faithfuls at some point in his career.  Some fans wondered why Sir Alex Ferguson would bother to leave such a one in his first team. Fans complained that Fletcher’s crosses from the wings weren’t good enough, in fact, Roy Keane who he was supposed to succeed felt he was below par. David Moyes, wanted to relieve Fletcher from his Manutd woes and asked him to join him in Everton Football Club, but Ferguson asked Fletcher to be patient. In that year, 2007 Manutd had lost away to Roma 2:1 in that game Paul Scholes was given a red card and suspended for the next game. Fletcher was called to deputize for Scholes, the fans screamed, lost hope and felt Manutd was finished, but on that day, Fletcher became a phoenix risen from the ashes. He played like his life depended on it. The Manutd faithful saw a Fletcher they'd never imagined. He was the best player on the pitch and he scored 2 goals. Manutd stunned Roma by 7:1. From that day, Darren Fletcher increased the tempo of his game, he still did not break into the team till he got a chance against Arsenal and he gave a star performance, scoring twice in a 4:0 win against Arsenal Football Club that season he was lethal, daring more into the oppositions box, breaking play and allowing Michael Carrick spray more passes. In 2008, Fletcher was deemed to have been given an unjust red card against Arsenal which denied him the opportunity of playing the 2008 Champions League final, many commentators to this day believe that if he had played that game, Manutd would have defeated Barcelona in that finals to carry the UEFA Champions league.

MYSELF

Let me briefly talk about my Youth service experience in a top corporation in Nigeria. 11 Lawyers were sent to the Legal Department and because the department was fully staffed, the Youth Corps Lawyers were used mainly for dispatching mails or receiving mails and sorting it according to the lawyer in charge. In the course of these functions, I started learning the filing process of this big corporation, the loopholes in it and how to make it more efficient. One day, one of the in-house Counsel of the Corporation asked me to summarize a judgment, and of course that was not a hard thing to do. However, I found out that the decision was poorly written and the judge who wrote the judgment was below par, I put “quaere” as a sub-title and noted anomalies in the judgment. The in-house counsel lawyer started assigning more legal work to me and before I knew it I was directly working with the Deputy Manager Litigation.

During, my Chambers attachment before I became a lawyer, we attended one of the lawyer weekly conferences. Most law firms in Nigeria, have these weekly litigation meetings to discuss cases coming up the next week. The firm had a thorny case before them. The Managing Counsel of the Law Firm a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was in that meeting for the first time. He wanted to know the approach his lawyers would take, no one had an answer. He smiled as threw the question to the (us) law students. After a brief pause, I said, “ sir, betting and gaming is generally unenforceable” and he asked so you mean that there might be exceptions. I replied in the affirmative. He asked for my explanation and ran hot temperature and cold sweat overwhelmed me. I was not sure of the point I wanted to make but I just started talking till the sense scantly came to me, I observed that the Defendants in that suit had made profits from a certain lottery, the money raised was for a national project, I was blabbing about public policy. The Chairman trying to bail me out asked me to write a legal opinion and put on his desk on Monday. I used the weekend to do my research and the first thing I did on Monday was to put the opinion on his desk. Subsequently a man came to the office and asked after me and he said he needed a researcher and was told by the lady in charge of law students that I was the best. There are a few more stories of me, receiving assignments that were considered bigger than me and I gave it my all to show that if anyone could do it, why shouldn’t I

So, I always try to show my hand, no matter how small the opportunity is.

On the next installment, we will consider the story of a Russian officer who dared to give an opinion when his superiors were being executed for failure during the Russian 2^nd World War history….. I HOPE YOU ALL SHOW YOUR HAND THIS WEEK AND LET ME KNOW HOW MUCH SUCCESS YOU GOT

Iyken