Hidden Angel

When I was in Fudan University in Shanghai as a student pursuing my MBA in 2015, I had the chance to play in many Ultimate Frisbee tournaments. I was pretty good and probably the top player in the teams I played for, considering I had been playing competitive Ultimate Frisbee since 2008.

I would make the most difficult plays, score the most point, do the layouts and anyone watching the games would call me the MVP. In fact I was made the captain of the team in most of the tournaments purely because my skills were superior compared to others.

But during the Hangzhou hat tournament, where I was put in a team which wasn't very good in terms of skill level, I learned an important life lesson. In that entire team, only 3 of us were good. Robert (an American who had been playing Ultimate Frisbee for 15+ years), Shaun (a Chinese who was very good) and me.

Robert and I would make the difficult plays, throw scoobers and hammers and the relatively inexperienced teammates would fumble the pass and the point would turnover. It was frustrating. But Shaun on the other hand always positioned himself on the field in such a way that would make it possible for the newbies (inexperienced teammates) to make an easy pass or catch an easy pass.

Robert and I were good and we showed off we were good and the spectators saw we were let down by the team. Shaun on the other hand was so great, he didn't show off he was good. He just made other team-mates look good, without them even knowing. He would always be there for a dump pass, he would be there when the stall count was 9 for them to easily pass to him.

It hit me then, if you really are very good, then the fun is in using your skills to make others look good without even knowing it. Every person who passed to Shaun or scored from an assist by Shaun thought they won it for the team. They were the hero. But no, it was Shaun.

With a super weak team, we still ended up winning the Hangzhou Hat Tournament. And even though I got the MVP, and even though everyone who watched our games, appreciated Robert and me, I know it is because of Shaun we won.

Shaun embodies Ads 2.0 philosophy in the sense that he is not kickass, he makes everyone around him kickass.

Most of my life, I have met people who are devil's advocate, they warn you of things. But really good people, take care of your problems even without you knowing it. Shaun taught me that if I am really good at something, I should be able to make everyone around me look better (even without them knowing).

The person with red band is Shaun