I have never been so encouraged to stay on course as I was a few days ago. I was on Hive in the morning, going through my feed, and reading posts. Then I stumbled on a movie recommendation. I didn't wait to see the author of the post. I was captivated by the picture of the lady in the photo. She exuded confidence. I wanted to find out why. My eyes moved quickly to the title of the movie. There, "The Queen's Gambit". Almost immediately, I saw chess, I didn't wait to read the reviews, neither did I finish reading the rest of the posts on my tabs.
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I moved over to my Telegram, clicked open the movie group I subscribed for. Ran a search for the movie. I was confident I will find that movie. My movie group doesn't disappoint. The admin is up-to-date with movies, and movie requests.
Oh no, it's a series, I was a little bit hurt because finding a series instead of a one-way movie meant my data is about to be exhausted. Once I remember it was a lady, and chess is involved, I waved off my hurt and press the download button.
I started with the first episode and I was vowed by the characters, the scenes, and the way the story was unveiled. This motivated me to download the rest of the episodes. One by one, I watched each one, moving on to the next. The scriptwriter did a great job with the endings of each episode. It will make you hunger for more. Your hunger can only be satisfied if you watch the next one. This was how I stayed rooted to my screen until I exhausted all the episodes.
Why I'm I telling you about the Queen's Gambit?
I am sitting here on a bus and I am reminded that confidence gives us the courage to step out of our comfort zones into the impossible. Confidence builds our morals. Confidence makes us want to do more especially in the face of danger and opposition. Confidence makes us want to do the things people say shouldn't be done.
Elizabeth Harmon exuded confidence in that movie, just the way I imagined it when I saw the movie recommendation on Hive that morning.
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I saw a woman who was willing to give her all to master chess and to beat everyone at their games. She wasn't afraid of anyone nor was age an obstacle to fulfilling her dreams.
The most important thing I learned from her wasn't how she won and lost those games and contests. It was the fact that she always prepared for every game no matter how easy her opponent would seem.
Nothing beats preparation. It is the key factor to success. Once you are prepared, you can beat the odds. If you aren't prepared or ready, you might as well skip trying. Yes, you could be talented, but, talent without the proper nourishment and preparations is null and void.
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Another lesson was the power of teamwork. We are already familiar with the phrase,"if you want to go fast, go alone if you want to go far, go with people" Teamwork is an additional ingredient in the food of success. A team takes the effort of one and multiplies it in several ways. It's just like combination and permutations. In how many ways can four people sit at a round table if two should sit together?. Of course, there will be more than one way. Teamwork makes this effective and possible. Teamwork did help Elizabeth Harmon in some ways.
In a nutshell, talent plus preparation wrapped with confidence equals success.
No, wait, that's not the conclusion. I wanted to tell you that no matter how difficult a situation is, you can find your way out of it if, you are willing to take a breathe, and calculate all of your moves. This is my best lesson from watching Beth Harmon play the game of chess.