Success Story of Cristiano Ronaldo
'I need to make myself special and I'm going to have to learn everything I need to become special. I'm going to have to regiment my day and my week, months and years and become as good as I can be by every possible means.'
By his early teens, Ronaldo started to attain his esteem needs. In 2001, he signed with Sporting Portugal. Ronaldo turned heads with a mesmerizing performance against Manchester United, wowing even his opponents with his footwork and deft skill. He made such an impression that a number of United players asked their manager to try and sign the young player. It was not long before the club paid Ronaldo's team more than £12 million for his services - a record fee for a player of his age.
Success may have many definitions depending on one's level of morality. However, Maslow's hierarcy of needs undoubtedly demonstrates the steps that lead into a universal agreement of what the achievement of success looks like. An individual who continues to inspire many is Cristiano Ronaldo who started at perhaps the bottom of this hierarchy and now stands at the top with his growing success.
He was born on February 5th, 1985, in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal as Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro. Although he had the basic physiological needs, he grew up in a largely working class neighbourhood in which his home was a small tin roofed shack. He faced many hardships as his father was a gardener who drank heavily that later died in 2005 due to kidney problems. Ronaldo's mother worked as a cook and cleaning person in order to maintain the financial stability and provide her children with these basic needs.
Looking at the safety needs of Ronaldo at that time, his stbility was often ensured by his mother as well as his security. He had the belongingness and love of his family that later extended to his team-mates. At the age of 10, Ronaldo had achieved three of the seven needs according to Maslow.
As a 10 year old boy, he was already known as a kid who ate, slept, and drank for this game. Many people such as his godfather Fernao Sousa recall that "All he wanted to do as a boy was play football. He loved the game so much he'd miss meals or escape out of his bedroom window with a ball when he was supposed to be doing his homework."