A back-heel, a dancing 8-year-old and England in the final felt like something to write about. And it was. People were talking. It was front-page news. The BBC Breakfast sofa was buzzing about this incredible performance from an incredible team of incredible women. Superlatives flowed and cheeks ached from smiling.
But then last night, another super-sub story and now Chloe Kelly is the darling of the nation. A nation that gets to celebrate its first major title in over half a century.
Now I am no journalist. It is not my job to report on events. The events I shared were a way to tell another story, albeit in a topical way. Should I have waited to see if England could do the unthinkable and actually win one of these showpiece events? Or was I right to commit to the cause and use this as a backdrop for encouraging commercial thinking, when my usual watchword is variety?
It is not possible to undo what has happened, and on a night where history was made, perhaps some personal rule-breaking is not out of order. So consider this a follow-up piece to last week, one which fortunately, links to a commercial lesson.
Perhaps I went too soon? No. Committing to this line has given me an opportunity, rather than using one. I get two pieces from the same event (or at least series of events).
In my financial services days, I remember the IFAs and other advisors saying, “There is no timing the market. It is time in the market that counts”. I took that to mean the sooner you got involved, the sooner you would start to see returns. More recently, it has become a message to the start-up along the lines of, “what are you waiting for?”.
It is true that business requires preparation. Diving in head-first into things is likely to result issues, so common sense suggests we check things out first. But how much is enough? Indeed, can you do too much preparation? For sure, Serena Weigman’s Lionesses will have done a lot of preparation, but the reason they won was because of the commitment they demonstrated to each other.
And this is what business requires. Commitment. You must do. By all means get your ducks in a row, but you have to get involved otherwise you will be a well-prepared bystander.
A surfer sits out to sea, feeling the water beneath them, feeling the swell. Waiting. Waiting for that at perfect wave. How long do they sit? What tells them it is time? Are they so fussy that they bide their time for hours, hoping for something better? Invariably, no. Every wave is an opportunity. Will it be perfect? Maybe not, but it will be something.
It is sometimes said that 50% of something, is better than 100% of nothing. Well, when it is your business, you get 100% of that something, and all that goes with it.
On Sunday, the England football team committed 100% and got everything they deserved. When it is all over, the timing doesn’t matter, only the doing.