Team vs. Individual

For you basketball fans out there, sure you know that the NBA season is over now and Pistons (Detroit) is the winner for this season. I wasn't a basketball fans before, but I got hooked this season :) What amazed me was how many people hate the Lakers (Sorry to the Los Angeles people who are reading this post). The only support that Lakers had was from the Los Angeles itself. I found out later that the reason why people hate Lakers was because they are too arrogant. Some of the members joined Lakers just because they want to win - meaning they think that Lakers for sure will win the championship (this is true for Karl Malone and Gary Payton - according to the news). The reason why Pistons beat Lakers this year was because Pistons was aware of the importance of a team while Lakers put individualistic above the team. None of the Pistons stood out more than the other while each of the Lakers tried to steal his own fame. The Pistons knew that it is a team game and not popularity contest.

Is a team always better than an individual?

I guess it depends on the situation. There is a situation where being in a team is better than if there is only one person who does everything. In sports with teams, like basketball, soccer, football, hockey, baseball, etc, of course the existence of the feeling of teamness will always be better than when each player wants to be recognized, hence sacrifices the team. But there is also other situation where you can get things done quickly if it is only you, for example an interior designer, a webmaster, etc.

After writing all these, I realize again that there are two kinds of people. One who is better working in a team and one who is better working by him/herself. Have you ever met a person who is a perfectionist? You know right away that he is better working by himself because he cannot let other people take control of his work. He wants to make sure that everything is just the way he wants it to be, thus he is better doing it all by himself. On the other hand, there is other person who needs someone else to keep encouraging him to do his work. He needs someone there to make sure that he doesn't slack off.

So what will happen if an individualistic person ends up in a team environment and vice versa? Well, I believe that no one is all one side. Even though you are an individualistic, there is also a small teamness spirit in you. It is important that we know what setting we are in and what's the best attitude we should give. We have to be flexible in order to succeed. Look what happened to the Lakers when they did not realize the importance of putting a team mode during the game. As much as we like being who we think we really are, sometime we have to control our active side and bring our passive side out.

Imagine what will happen in a church if everyone wants to be recognized for his/her effort? One of our needs is to be recognized. That is our need, alright. But don't forget that God is still above us and He is the only One who deserves all the recognition and all the praise. Don't let your self esteem and your pride causes you to forget who actually deserve it all.