What is in a name, for a rose by any name smells just as good was the question the nurse to Juliet asked in Shakespeare’s book, Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare also interrogates the paradox of leadership in Twelfth Night.
The clown says to Malvolio: “Do not be afraid of greatness, for some are born great, some acquire greatness whilst some have greatness thrust upon them”.
Did the name Fortune play any role in the fortunes of Quinton Fortune? His prowess is not only in sports but is in legendary leadership. In my mother tongue, the Sesotho language, we have an idiom that argues that there is a lot in a name – it is a causality and, therefore, a premonition of things to happen to one so named.
I remember Fortune, the left-footed South African midfielder, for the cracker in a World Cup game that left the crossbar trembling. He is one of the many capable people who inspire through deep respect for his profession and humanity. In sports, he sees ever-enduring growth and capability, but by asking difficult questions and revealing possibilities.
He is one of a number of South African football players who ooze critical lessons to our kinsmen.
They moved from playing the game at the highest level globally, and went on to become coaches and managers of the game, and succeeded internationally.
Pitso Mosimane, Benni McCarthy and Fortune come to mind as great leaders.
On a flight from the UK, I crossed paths with McCarthy, and he was coming from one of his training lessons as a coach in an institution in the UK whilst also coaching Pirates. Mosimane would rush between games to undertake his coaching lessons whilst he was at Sundowns.
Similarly, Fortune undertook coaching training and was part of the coaching team at Manchester United before he moved to Reading, in the UK, as a coach in 2020.
It comes as no surprise that these players reached the pinnacle in the game as prolific players and proceeded to play leadership and managerial roles in the game. In fact, I have not come across a soccer coach who was not a player before.
However, there are a few coaches who became coaches without acquiring the training as a coach. But these coaches have rarely achieved spectacular results and have remained in teams at the bottom of national soccer leagues.
Last week, I was in conversation with Fortune after he appeared on the Kohler Bold Talks and spoke on the topic of Legendary Leadership, leadership that Fortune has in spades.
His meteoric rise was not by sudden flight, as the poet Henry Longfellow describes on heights reached and kept by great men.
But Fortune reached and kept the heights by toiling through the night whilst his companions slept. Fortune began his life on the Cape Flats.
Fortune said growing up that the environment was tough – gang fights and drugs – but for him, living so close to Athlone Stadium fuelled his passion for football. From the fourth floor of his family apartment, he could watch football daily. He tried his hand at other sports – tennis, athletics and cricket, but nothing compared to the thrill of playing football.
There was nothing about fortune in this very foundational period for him except the fortune that he could watch games from this trouble infested environment.
As South Africa faces a multiplicity of problems, the top of which is electricity, a lot can be learned from those who respect, build, research and practice their profession.
Fortune grew in soccer and reached the heights. This was not by sudden flight.
Eskom is an engineering complex demanding economics for it to be understood. Without engineering attributes built over academic endeavour and practice as a matter of cause, you cannot lead it.
Let us learn from Mosimane, McCarthy and Fortune that there is no fortune in reaching heights but nurturing and respecting the profession. Eskom misses this important lesson and has plunged the country into eternal darkness as De Ruyter has greatness thrust upon him.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa
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