Ronaldo: You Have To Be Ambitious; You Can Never Say You've Won It All

 

The Portuguese player,Cristiano Ronaldo granted an interview to journalist Marcelo Robelo, during which he spoke about his philosophy on life and success. See excerpts from the interview below:

International experience:
When I moved and started playing abroad, I began to see things differently. I have absorbed the cultures from three countries: Portugal, England and Spain. In England, they are very professional and punctual and that is something I value a lot. It is a fair country and the people are educated and friendly and that’s also something I love about the place. In Spain, the people are positive and value what they have. In Portugal, we should try and learn something from both of them.

Motivation:
I want to be the best in my profession. If we don’t think that way, then we are not going to win anything. We have to think about and recognize the areas in which we are the best at what we do. The most important thing though is being dedicated to your job. Every day a new challenge comes along. However much natural talent you have, if you are not disciplined, it won’t get you far.

Football:
What started out for me just as a fun way of enjoying myself, ended up as being a job, a career and with that comes responisbility. Now, it’s still fun but the difference is that we have objectives. You eventually get to a point where you are challenging yourself – you no longer have to prove yourself to anyone. But you still have to prove it to yourself. You might say that I have won everything and now I don’t have to set objectives and maybe I can start working less. But you have to keep going, you have to remain ambitious.

Looking after yourself:
I don’t dedicate my time exclusively to training but I do things so that I can improve - and so that I can continue playing at a high level until I am 35 or 36. That means you have to give up a lot of other things; there are a lot of temptations and it’s very difficult – especially in the culture we live in, in Spain. It’s a very open society, the people here are happy living day to day, they’re always happy in spite of the difficulties they might have. That was something which surprised me about a country which borders Portugal; the mentality is completely different.

The key to success:
You won’t achieve anything without hard work. Dedication and working hard are the principles which are the most important to me. Life is like a puzzle and every day there is a new piece of the jigsaw which needs to be put in its place. To gain success, you need rules and discipline. However much talent you have, if you don’t have commitment and dedication, you can’t win.

Responsibilities:
Some people might look for an excuse or say, “I didn’t have the opportunity or, I didn’t have the possibility to do this or that”. But when you want to do something, you can.

Message to young people:
My message is to always remain optimistic. You have to be optimistic, be as professional as you can and work hard. Hard work is the key to success – and having a little luck, that comes into it as well.