What I learned from Johan Cruyff's book "My Turn"
Johan Cruyff is one of the most influential figures in world football. His revolutionary ideas have changed football and influenced many of today’s executives and coaches.
Here are 14 principles and quotes from his post-humous autobiography “My Turn”.
1/ Never stop progressing
I can only think about being at the top. As a player or a coach I’m not capable of doing something at a low level. I can only think in one direction. Upwards. To be the best possible. That’s why in the end, I had to stop. […] Above all I want to say that my life has always been lived with a view of doing things better and getting better. I translated that into everything I’ve done.
Nothing is ever truly the finished article, and that’s why it’s so important to think creatively, to keep progressing.
Everything I have done has been done with a view to the future, concentrating on progress which means that the past is not something that I think about too much.
I always try to do things in a positive way, and above all make it clear that nothing is impossible.
2/ Turn a disadvantage into an advantage
It was here I learned to think about how to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. You see that the kerb isn’t actually an obstacle, but that you turn it into a teammate for a one-two.
I was there every spare moment and never left home without a football. From the age of five when I went to help out with Uncle Henk at the stadium, I always took my bootbag with me as well. You never knew if the team might be a man short for training or a practice match and I was often lucky, tough usually only because they felt sorry for me. I was a bag of bones, I looked like a shrimp, and they took pity on me, which meant that even though I had no business being there, and wasn’t even in the youth team, I was playing with the Ajax team from a very early age. It was another example of a belief that I have always had and tried to pass on – that you can turn a disadvantage, like my scrawny appearance, into an advantage.
3/ Listen and learn as much as you can
From the age of five I learned everything that was going on at the club from the changing room to the first eleven. I sat listening to them day after day, soaking it all up like a sponge.
He describes it as crucial for developing so quickly as a footballer:
And because that was the atmosphere that I was surrounded by at the club from a very young age, I never felt scared of failure or worried about an upcoming match. […] I knew all the first-eleven players when I was put into the first team, which meant that the step-up from the juniors wasn’t in any way daunting for me.
4/ If you can't change it, don't worry about it
If I can’t rectify something, I just switch it off. Start again, new page. I just file setbacks away. I immediately go in search of the positive.
What had happened had happened, and I tried to learn something new from it and move on to the next chapter. I have never looked back much, and when I closed the door at home, even when we had lost, I was able to put it all behind me and forget about it.
5/ Learn from other disciplines
I was able to transfer a lot of advice from baseball to football very successfully. […] I learned that you had to know where you were going to throw the ball before you received it, which meant that you had to have an idea of all the space around you and where each player was before you made your throw.
It was here that my love of mental arithmetic came to the fore, in understanding how we could make the most of the pitch in front of us to beat the opposition.
Cruyff also took inspiration from history, for example from the construction of the pyramids:
When I think that way, I’m increasingly convinced that everything is actually possible. If they managed to do the impossible nearly five thousand years ago, why can’t we do it today?
6/ A great, inspired team is the foundation for success
The fundamental idea is teamwork: arrive as a team, leave as a team and return home as a team.
I discovered for myself how difficult it is if your players aren’t inspired to perform to the maximum. If that happens, you’re never going to succeed
7/ Play for your fans
My principles have always been built on two questions: how well are you going to win? And what approach are you going to take to do it? And you always have to take the fans into account.
That’s why I have a bit of a problem with people who go on about how winning is the holy grail of professional sport. Of course, the result is important, but the most important thing is the fans: the people who feel the club flowing in their blood.
The spectators had been working all week; we had to entertain them on their day off, and at the same time get a good result.
The whole organization of the first-team was based on the American model. That meant using specialists. I’d realized that no single person can be the best footballer in every position on the pitch.
I delegated the training sessions, the scouting and so on to others, simply because they were better at it than I was. I’ve never pretended I could do anything I couldn’t.
If you do fitness training, you’re responsible. Not me. So don’t ask me what to do. For me two things are important: […] But if you can’t work it out for yourselves, then I’ll go out and find someone else who can.
To be a successful trainer requires amazing man-management skills to put the right person in the right place.
9/ Know your circle of competence
Cruyff invested blindly in a pig-breeding company.
It was an area of business I knew nothing about, plus – and this is the stupidest thing – something I actually had absolutely no connection with. My ignorance was being exploited.
I also began to use the pig-headedness that had served me so well in football in completely the wrong way.
As a well-known footballer you were actually walking into an unreal world, everything is abnormal – the salary, the media interest – and at a time like that your business manager must ensure his talent isn’t going off in twelve directions at the same time.
10/ Explore your curiosity
Good or bad, I think all experience is terrific. No one starts anything with a view of getting it wrong. Hindsight is wonderful, but it doesn’t change a thing. It’s far better to learn from your mistakes.
I don’t think I was taught much, but the biggest lessons were from failing and failing.
My brief career as a businessman was a one-off. After it, as far as I was concerned, it was: “Great guys, that one’s done, night-night and off we go to the next situation.”
To be able to touch the ball perfectly once, you need to have touched it a hundred thousand times in training.
I’ve said often that playing simple football is the most complicated thing there is, but if you have the basic qualities – the fundamental skills – you can always perform better in the end.
12/ Share your ideas
Nothing is ever truly the finished article, and that’s why it’s so important to think creatively, to keep progressing. Of course, that doesn’t mean that all ideas are good, but yours could be the germ of one that inspires other people to go on and perfect it. But if you leave it in the box, nothing is ever to going to happen. Absolutely nothing. If you’re obliged to think the way they think at the top, then nothing changes. In my view, nothing has ever been invented by one person.
Cruyff also emphasizes the importance of collaboration which he learned in America:
Everyone learned not only how to give the best themselves, but also how to share it with other people.
13/ Treat setbacks as learnings
A setback is probably a sign that you need to make some adjustments. If you learn to think that way, all experiences are translated into something positive. It enriches you as a person. And you learn to be disappointed, but never sad. Luckily, I’ve overcome all setbacks. That didn’t happen by chance either. I’m an attacker. I’m not scared of anyone, and I’m used to creating things. That’s why I never felt shame. Not even when I lost millions on that pig farm, because I saw very quickly how stupid I’d been. After all, why should somebody who’s so good at football and knows such much about it suddenly be an expert on pigs? If you dare to look at yourself in the mirror there’s no room for shame, as long as you draw the right lesson from the situation, and as long as you can use your mistakes to continue further along your revenge, and luckily I’ve always been very good at that.
14/ Be prepared for opportunities
From the age of five, he spent every moment at Ajax's stadium. He was not even in the youth team.
I always took my bootbag with me as well. You never knew if the team might be a man short for training or practice match.