STARTING FROM SCRATCH — Motivation From Deprivation

STARTING FROM SCRATCH Motivation From Deprivation EDSON Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé was born in 1940 in Brazil. From his childhood days he showed a keen interest in playing football. However, Pelé grew up in abject poverty and could not purchase a proper football. His father was a footballer too but he could never earn enough to feed his family. Pelé’s first football was made of socks filled with rags. Sometimes the stuffing was old newspapers, with a string used to tie the ball together. In this way, Pelé continued to play football as a child and in his youth, later adopting it as a professional career. Today, he is widely regarded to be the greatest football player of all time. It is not accidental that a person unable to afford a football, reaches such an acclaimed position in the game. There are thousands of such cases in history. The law of nature helps explain this phenomenon in a rationally understandable manner. Poverty is not deprivation. Rather, it is a challenge. The fact is that every human being is born with great potential. One aspect of this potential is the urge to achieve one’s goal. If a person is born in unfavourable circumstances, then this urge gets activated more intensely and becomes a source of great motivation. Self-motivation is so strong a quality that it can make a person achieve great heights without any external help. Poverty is not deprivation. Rather, it is a challenge. The challenge then becomes greater than everything else, as it activates one’s mind. It makes a person capable of concentrating all of one's energies on the achievement of one’s goal. Pelé’s case was not a miracle, instead it was a well-explained phenomenon of challenge. In his autobiography, Pelé writes: “Poverty is a curse that depresses the mind, drains the spirit and poisons life. It is, being robbed of selfrespect and self-reliance. Poverty is fear.” It is very strange that Pelé failed to draw a lesson from his own experience. He was born in poverty, but in terms of results, his poverty proved to be a blessing in disguise. It became a supporting factor for