The French Football team started the Euro 2021 tournament with an incredible reputation. They were so strong that there were jokes that a team made of French players omitted from the squad could be strong enough to win it.
The reputation was well deserved. The squad seemed to have only grown stronger since their triumph in the 2018 world cup. They also started off with an easy 2-0 victory over Germany. Defeating a German football team in any tournament can rarely be described as “easy.”
There were some signs that things could go wrong in their remaining Group stage games. But, they still reached the Round of 16 with relative ease. They were now leading the Swiss team 3-1 with 10 minutes to go – the quarterfinal place was all but sealed.
Until it wasn’t.
The Swiss came back to tie the game in the next 10 minutes and won on penalties.
There’s a saying that reputations don’t count much in sport. You are only as good as your last game.
Of course, that saying is just as true beyond sport. It works the same way in our careers and lives too.
We are what we repeatedly do.
