Messi Dribbles and Skills

Messi: Interest and Hobbies

A number:
10.

A food:
Anything Argentinian made by my mother. Although I must say that my dad also cooks like a professional :-)

A dessert:
Sweet pastries and anything with dulce de leche

A colour:
Red

A place:
Rosario, Argentina, and the neighbourhood where I grew up.

What would you be if you were not a footballer?:
I get asked that all the time, and I don’t have an answer. I’ve always liked football, since I was very little, and I signed for Barca when I was only 13.

What is the first thing you do in the morning?:
I go to the bathroom.

What is it that you least like about your job?:
Being away form my family.

And what do you like the most?:
The fans’ affection and playing football.

What do you like doing when you are at home?:
Being with my family and playing PlayStation.

A book:
El Martin Fierro, by Jose Hernandez

A film:
El hijo de la novia (The son of the Bride)

A TV series:
Prison Break and Lost

mountains or beach?:
I love the beach

A trip:
I don’t have any particular preferences, but I really enjoyed going to Disneyland.

A goal in life:
To win as many titles as possible and to grow as a person.

Married life or single life?:
Right now, I am fine as I am: in a relationship.

White or dark chocolate?:
Dulce de leche! :-)

An animal:
Dogs

Bowtie or tie?:
I don’t like either, but if I have to choose…a tie.

What makes you angry?:
Many things, but mainly injustice and the suffering of the underprivileged.

A habit:
A habit: I always play with my hair wet

A flaw:
I am quite shy

A virtue:
I try to be a better person every day

Sweet or savoury?:
Sweet

A stadium:
The Camp Nou, full

A memory:
The day of my debut with my first team and the final of the Champions League 2009
Looking back to the first time you played in the first team. how did you feel?
It was lovely, I only have fond memories, to be with Ronaldinho, Deco, Samu… It was amazing. I still remember how Ronalinho wanted me next to him. There was space available between him and motta … but I had to wait for official approval from the club before I could move. It’s not just that you can go wherever you wish…

Meat or vegetables?:
Beef and salad

A secret:
I don’t have one’

Where would you get lost?:
I don’t know, I enjoy being at home.

Winter or summer?:
Summer.

Who would take with you to a deserted island?:
My family

A song:
I don’t have a favourite, anything cumbia. some of my mates laugh when I make them listen to cumbia. They give weird looks, as if to say “What is that?”

A footballer:
Maradona.

What do you say to those who compare you to Diego?:
Those who do never saw him play…

What was it like to be with him in La noche del 10?:
OH, incredible… that guy is unique. We were backstage with my dad, my cousin and my uncle talking about the autographs and photographs we were going to ask him for. Suddenly, Diego opened the door and he came in. We were petrified. He left without us asking for anything… the camera didn’t even leave the case…

Your favourite move:
Ronaldinho’s elastica

Your worst memory as a player:
My injuries

And the best?:
Lots, all the titles won with Barca and the gold medal with Argentina in Beijing

A competition:
The World Cup

Messi Biography

My name is Lionel Andres Messi and I was born on 24 June 1987 south of Rosario, in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. Presently, I play as a right forward for FC Barcelona (Barca) and for the Argentinian National Team. I have dual citizenship, Argentinian and Spanish, as I completed the two-year Spanish residency requirements in 2005. They call me Leo, Lio or La Pulga, but the one I am most used to is Leo.


My Life

My family has told me that from a very early age, when I was learning to walk, I had a passion for the ball. Clearly, I don’t remember that, but it’s not hard to imagine myself running after a ball.

As many of you may already know, as a child, when I was about 8, I had to undergo special treatment in order to have a normal rate of growth. I always remember that every night I would sit on my bed and have injections in my legs. It wasn’t fun, I can assure you, but I wanted to become a footballer so much that it was worth it. The problem was that the treatment was very expensive and my family couldn’t afford it. Mum and Dad tried everything and I will always be grateful for that. In the end, it seemed like the solution was in Spain, in Lerida, where some of our relatives live. My Dad was offered a job and, at the same time, it was my chance to go for a trial with Barca.

Luckily, the trials went well and before I knew it I had earned the opportunity to play in Barcelona. At that time, I always remember, my family and I had to make a very difficult decision. The question was whether to go back home or to try our luck in Barcelona. It sounds like an easy choice to make, but it saddens me to think about that time. One day my dad asked me: “What would you like to do, Leo?” “I’d like to stay”, I answered. I said that with great conviction and the hope of fulfilling a dream. I will never regret having made that decision, knowing that I would always have my family’s unconditional support.

Never Give Up

In that dark lonesome place
between a dream dreamed
and a dream realized,

I have left a little light for you
so you will know that someone cares
and believes in your dream.

Just where it becomes the most dark
and difficult to find your way,
there is the light I left for you.

It will light your way,
through the doubt, the confusion,
and the fears,

It will stay with you
all the way to the realization
of your dream.

And when your dream has come true,
please go back to that darkest place
where you have been,

And set the little light there to give heart
to the next sweet soul that braves the path
to his or her dreams.

Dreamers are the architects of greatness.
There wisdom lies within their souls.
Dream long enough and hard enough
and your dream can be attained.

A Mothers Love

A little boy came up to his mother in the kitchen one evening while she was fixing supper, and handed her a piece of paper that he had been writing on. After his Mom dried her hands on an apron, she read it, and this is what it said:

For cutting the grass: $5.00
For cleaning up my room this week: $1.00
For going to the store for you: $.50
Baby-sitting my kid brother while you went shopping: $.25
Taking out the garbage: $1.00
For getting a good report card: $5.00
For cleaning up and raking the yard: $2.00
Total owed: $14.75

Well, his mother looked at him standing there, and the boy could see the memories flashing through her mind. She picked up the pen, turned over the paper he'd written on, and this is what she wrote:

For the nine months I carried you while you were growing inside me:
No Charge

For all the nights that I've sat up with you, doctored and prayed for you:
No Charge

For all the trying times, and all the tears that you've caused through the years:
No Charge

For all the nights that were filled with dread, and for the worries I knew were ahead:
No Charge

For the toys, food, clothes, and even wiping your nose:
No Charge

Son, when you add it up, the cost of my love is:
No Charge.

When the boy finished reading what his mother had written, there were big tears in his eyes, and he looked straight at his mother and said, "Mom, I sure do love you." And then he took the pen and in great big letters he wrote: "PAID IN FULL".


Lessons:

You will never how much your parents worth till you become a parent

Be a giver not an asker, especially with your parents. there is a lot to give, besides money.

Advice: IF your mom is alive and close to you, give her a big kiss and ask her for forgiveness. If she is far away, call her. if she passed away, pray for her.

Inspirational Quotes

The difference between success and failure is often not who has the most money, or the best education: it's motivation. As George Washington Carver once said, "Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."

So whatever goals you have set for yourself this year, stop making excuses and finding reasons why you cannot do it, and instead just do it. Time is wasting. Life is short. Seize the day and don't let it go until you get what you want. We hope that you will find the motivational quotes on this site helpful and inspirational.

The Old One

Einstein’s Secret to Amazing Problem Solving (and 10 Specific Ways You Can Use It)

Einstein is quoted as having said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend fifty-five minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution.
This quote does illustrate an important point: before jumping right into solving a problem, we should step back and invest time and effort to improve our understanding of it. Here are 10 strategies you can use to see problems from many different perspectives and master what is the most important step in problem solving: clearly defining the problem in the first place!

The Problem Is To Know What the Problem Is

The definition of the problem will be the focal point of all your problem-solving efforts. As such, it makes sense to devote as much attention and dedication to problem definition as possible. What usually happens is that as soon as we have a problem to work on we’re so eager to get to solutions that we neglect spending any time refining it.
What most of us don’t realize — and what supposedly Einstein might have been alluding to — is that the quality of the solutions we come up with will be in direct proportion to the quality of the description of the problem we’re trying to solve. Not only will your solutions be more abundant and of higher quality, but they’ll be achieved much, much more easily. Most importantly, you’ll have the confidence to be tackling a worthwhile problem.

Problem Definition Tools and Strategies

The good news is that getting different perspectives and angles in order to clearly define a problem is a skill that can be learned and developed. As such, there are many strategies you can use to perfect it. Here are the 10 most effective ones I know.

1. Rephrase the Problem

When a Toyota executive asked employees to brainstorm “ways to increase their productivity”, all he got back were blank stares. When he rephrased his request as “ways to make their jobs easier”, he could barely keep up with the amount of suggestions.
Words carry strong implicit meaning and, as such, play a major role in how we perceive a problem. In the example above, ‘be productive’ might seem like a sacrifice you’re doing for the company, while ‘make your job easier’ may be more like something you’re doing for your own benefit, but from which the company also benefits. In the end, the problem is still the same, but the feelings — and the points of view — associated with each of them are vastly different.
Play freely with the problem statement, rewording it several times. For a methodic approach, take single words and substitute variations. ‘Increase sales’? Try replacing ‘increase’ with ‘attract’, ‘develop’, ‘extend’, ‘repeat’ and see how your perception of the problem changes. A rich vocabulary plays an important role here, so you may want to use a thesaurus or develop your vocabulary.

2. Expose and Challenge Assumptions

Every problem — no matter how apparently simple it may be — comes with a long list of assumptions attached. Many of these assumptions may be inaccurate and could make your problem statement inadequate or even misguided.
The first step to get rid of bad assumptions is to make them explicit. Write a list and expose as many assumptions as you can — especially those that may seem the most obvious and ‘untouchable’.
That, in itself, brings more clarity to the problem at hand. But go further and test each assumption for validity: think in ways that they might not be valid and their consequences. What you will find may surprise you: that many of those bad assumptions are self-imposed — with just a bit of scrutiny you are able to safely drop them.
For example, suppose you’re about to enter the restaurant business. One of your assumptions might be ‘restaurants have a menu’. While such an assumption may seem true at first, try challenging it and maybe you’ll find some very interesting business models (such as one restaurant in which customers bring dish ideas for the chef to cook, for example).

3. Chunk Up

Each problem is a small piece of a greater problem. In the same way that you can explore a problem laterally — such as by playing with words or challenging assumptions — you can also explore it at different “altitudes”.
If you feel you’re overwhelmed with details or looking at a problem too narrowly, look at it from a more general perspective. In order to make your problem more general, ask questions such as: “What’s this a part of?”, “What’s this an example of?” or “What’s the intention behind this?”.
For a detailed explanation of how this principle works, check the article Boost Your Brainstorm Effectiveness with the Why Habit.
Another approach that helps a lot in getting a more general view of a problem is replacing words in the problem statement with hypernyms. Hypernyms are words that have a broader meaning than the given word. (For example, a hypernym of ‘car’ is ‘vehicle’). A great, free tool for finding hypernyms for a given word is WordNet (just search for a word and click on the ‘S:’ label before the word definitions).

4. Chunk Down

If each problem is part of a greater problem, it also means that each problem is composed of many smaller problems. It turns out that decomposing a problem in many smaller problems — each of them more specific than the original — can also provide greater insights about it.
‘Chunking the problem down’ (making it more specific) is especially useful if you find the problem overwhelming or daunting.
Some of the typical questions you can ask to make a problem more specific are: “What are parts of this?” or “What are examples of this?”.
Just as in ‘chunking up’, word substitution can also come to great use here. The class of words that are useful here are hyponyms: words that are stricter in meaning than the given one. (E.g. two hyponyms of ‘car’ are ‘minivan’ and ‘limousine’). WordNet can also help you finding hyponyms.

5. Find Multiple Perspectives

Before rushing to solve a problem, always make sure you look at it from different perspectives. Looking at it with different eyes is a great way to have instant insight on new, overlooked directions.
For example, if you own a business and are trying to ‘increase sales’, try to view this problem from the point of view of, say, a customer. For example, from the customer’s viewpoint, this may be a matter of adding features to your product that one would be willing to pay more for.
Rewrite your problem statement many times, each time using one of these different perspectives. How would your competition see this problem? Your employees? Your mom?
Also, imagine how people in various roles would frame the problem. How would a politician see it? A college professor? A nun? Try to find the differences and similarities on how the different roles would deal with your problem.

6. Use Effective Language Constructs

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula for properly crafting the perfect problem statement, but there are some language constructs that always help making it more effective:

• Assume a myriad of solutions. An excellent way to start a problem statement is: “In what ways might I…”. This expression is much superior to “How can I…” as it hints that there’s a multitude of solutions, and not just one — or maybe none. As simple as this sounds, the feeling of expectancy helps your brain find solutions.
• Make it positive. Negative sentences require a lot more cognitive power to process and may slow you down — or even derail your train of thought. Positive statements also help you find the real goal behind the problem and, as such, are much more motivating.
  For example: instead of finding ways to ‘quit smoking’, you may find that ‘increase your energy’, ‘live longer’ and others are much more worthwhile goals.
• Frame your problem in the form of a question. Our brain loves questions. If the question is powerful and engaging, our brains will do everything within their reach to answer it. We just can’t help it: Our brains will start working on the problem immediately and keep working in the background, even when we’re not aware of it.
• If you’re still stuck, consider using the following formula for phrasing your problem statement:
  “In what ways (action) (object) (qualifier) (end result)?”
  Example: In what ways might I package (action) my book (object) more attractively (qualifier) so people will buy more of it (end result)?

7. Make It Engaging

In addition to using effective language constructs, it’s important to come up with a problem statement that truly excites you so you’re in the best frame of mind for creatively tackling the problem. If the problem looks too dull for you, invest the time adding vigor to it while still keeping it genuine. Make it enticing. Your brain will thank (and reward) you later.
One thing is to ‘increase sales’ (boring), another one is ‘wow your customers’. One thing is ‘to create a personal development blog’, another completely different is to ‘empower readers to live fully’.

8. Reverse the Problem

One trick that usually helps when you’re stuck with a problem is turning it on its head.
If you want to win, find out what would make you lose. If you are struggling finding ways to ‘increase sales’, find ways to decrease them instead. Then, all you need to do is reverse your answers. ‘Make more sales calls’ may seem an evident way of increasing sales, but sometimes we only see these ‘obvious’ answers when we look at the problem from an opposite direction.
This seemingly convoluted method may not seem intuitive at first, but turning a problem on its head can uncover rather obvious solutions to the original problem.

9. Gather Facts

Investigate causes and circumstances of the problem. Probe details about it — such as its origins and causes. Especially if you have a problem that’s too vague, investigating facts is usually more productive than trying to solve it right away.
If, for example, the problem stated by your spouse is “You never listen to me”, the solution is not obvious. However, if the statement is “You don’t make enough eye contact when I’m talking to you,” then the solution is obvious and you can skip brainstorming altogether. (You’ll still need to work on the implementation, though!)
Ask yourself questions about the problem. What is not known about it? Can you draw a diagram of the problem? What are the problem boundaries? Be curious. Ask questions and gather facts. It is said that a well-defined problem is halfway to being solved: I would add that a perfectly-defined problem is not a problem anymore.

10. Problem-Solve Your Problem Statement

I know I risk getting into an infinite loop here, but as you may have noticed, getting the right perspective of a problem is, well, a problem in itself. As such, feel free to use any creative thinking technique you know to help. There are plenty to choose from:
You may want to give yourself an Idea Quota of problem statements. Or write a List of 100 problems to solve. SCAMPER your problem definition. These are just some of dozen techniques you can try.
Of course, how much effort you invest in defining the problem in contrast to how much effort you invest in solving your actual problem is a hard balance to achieve, though one which is attainable with practice.
Personally, I don’t think that 55 minutes of defining a problem versus 5 minutes acting on it is usually a good proportion. The point is that we must be aware of how important problem defining is and correct our tendency to spend too little time on it.
In fact, when you start paying more attention to how you define your problems, you’ll probably find that it is usually much harder than solving them. But you’ll also find that the payoff is well worth the effort.

The Magician Skills

Long Journey

To The Final Destination