Yusuf Dikec is a household name today, thanks to social media that made him viral. The ‘virality’ on social media eclipses the essence of the coveted silver medal at the Olympics 'he' won, that every sports person aspires for in life.
But wait a minute… Did he win this medal alone? No! He was a
part of the mixed team 10-meter air pistol shooting event. This was a Team
sport and only his image & name went this viral, I wish to present before you
the name of his team mate no one knows, or rather the less 'virtually' popular, Sevval
Ilayda Tarhan who is nonexistent in the entire narrative. Had Sevval
performed badly would he have been on the Silver podium? NO! is my emphatic
answer, and had he not been part of the silver winning team, would his image
have gone viral with messages of motivation like ‘Success doesn’t come with
your hands in your pockets’ tagged along with it? That’s another emphatic NO!!!
Incidentally, Sevval also shot with her hand in her pocket!!!!
This image for me gives multiple messages of relevance to
each and every one of us, be it in our personal or professional lives. Social
Media takes bits and pieces of the life around us that we project and amplifies
to an extent that people around get mesmerized by the ‘now’ image and do not
look into the so called behind the scenes or do a fact check on those events or
images. This is a rather dangerous trend irrespective of the context we apply
it in.
In the professional context this is akin to a Manager over
shadowing his best performing employee from being part of the success story, also
from the now all-important inclusivity angle, was that not a sidelining of the
contribution of a woman in the success that got them the silver? Her only fault
was, Unlike Dikec, she was competing with large ear defenders, a visor, as well
as braids in the red and white colors of the Turkish flag. She was shooting
with one hand in her pocket, too.
His one hand in pocket image portrayed nonchalance and confidence
and inspired people the world over to be like him, while her show of patriotism
towards the country with braided hair in Turkeye’s national flag colours and
her large ear defenders (Dikec was wearing ear plugs) and a protective visor (Dikec
was wearing a glass, the power of which we know not) cost her the moment of glory
in the virtual world of virality even though she was an equal contributor to the
first ever silver medal in Shooting for Turkiye. Sadly, Sevval Ilayda Tarhan’s
hand in pocket image did not gain the same traction, the male shooter got? Wasn’t
that nonchalance? Was that not Confidence? Dikec has been competing in the Olympics
since 2008 and has never won a medal, so where was his nonchalance then? Where
was his confidence then?
In the Corporate world too, akin to a team sport, the main contributor
/ player, Manager or even the team / company is only as good as his / her / its
team. In the personal world the so-called
influencers send a multitude of naïve children, youth and even grown-ups to pursue
the path of attaining virality on social media without really understanding the
real not reel story behind the scene. The story is always longer than a scene
or the reel and unfortunately given the pandemic like attention deficit all possess
today it is very difficult to inculcate the virtues of patience in people to understand
the essence or the real story behind the events happening around us.
Talking about inclusivity when you google up Yusuf’s name most
of the searches return questions like Did “he” win a medal? And the results that throw up are “He” won a
medal when the actual reply should have been “They” won a medal, as it was
mixed sport and he won it because of her! In this era of pronoun sensitive prose
this is an unpardonable and glaring error.
Dekic might have Veni! Vidi! Vici!
the virtual world!
Sevval not only Veni! Vidi! Vici!
but also helped her country in walking away with the silver medal without any Ad
ostentationem!
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