Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring.
Interpretation
Quality and results must coexist for true success.
This quote emphasizes the importance of balancing quality and results in any endeavor. Pursuing high-quality work is essential, but if it does not lead to tangible results, then it lacks purpose. Conversely, achieving results without maintaining quality can lead to mediocrity, making any success unremarkable. Thus, both elements must be integrated to achieve excellence.
In practice
During a team meeting, I mentioned Cruyff's insight to stress the importance of merging quality and measurable achievements.
Ajax is a multicultural club, and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty. So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights, I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour.
It's disappointing to see how football, the world's No. 1 sport, is not No. 1 when it comes to development. It seems to me that a wealth of practical football knowledge is being squandered.
Football is not about suffering. It's about enjoyment. Control the ball, be friendly with it, try to attack, try to score goals. Of course defending is part of it, but you can defend in a lot of ways.
If you look at other countries, you see they have different values: defend more, pass the ball out more, winning is holy. In England, you could say that sport itself is holy. They say, 'Look, guys, it's about more than just winning.'
If you take golf, you have a teacher for the drive, a teacher for the approach play, and a teacher for the putt. That's three specialist coaches for one player. In football, one coach looks after 25 players.
The most important part are the fans, that people going home are happy. It's their time off, and you should give them something to enjoy.
Well, the only way I can get a leading-man role is if I write it.
If we dispense with some of our self-made boundaries, India can really take its place in the world as an economic power. It hasn't happened because we, sadly, don't look at ourselves as Indians but as Punjabis or Parsis, unlike the Americans. Don't make such boundaries.
Planning defines the particular place you want to be and how you intend to get there. It's a responsibility rather than a technique.
Failure is the true test of greatness
Writers have told me more than once that I'm a better interview in defeat than in victory, which is a compliment I am extremely proud of.
When our attitude towards ourselves is big, and our attitude toward others is generous and merciful, we attract big and generous portions of success.
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