Elite

All parents yearn for their children to represent school in competition, an achievement worth uploading to social media platform. In fact, it might be tempting even to broadcast a live video to guarantee hundreds of "Like" on your post.

It is one thing to celebrate if your children get selected. But it is another thing altogether to consider how school teachers should choose the school team. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine took pride in his firsthand experience in school's choice of sending the best of the best candidate. The crème de la crème, end of story. Reputation first. Always.

Which brings me to a novel on my bedside table recently: Beartown. That's a story of junior ice hockey team. No one really knows where Beartown is. Not because it's nestled deep in the forest, but because it's poor. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and everyone in the community pins hope on the juniors. Winning would mean everything to this small town. So much so that the sports team has decided to fire the coach Sune and replace him by someone who says just one word: "Win." The club needs that; the town demands that.

It's just that Sune isn't so sure that's all a hockey team should consist of: boys who never lose. Instead, Sune told his hockey players: "Some of you were born with talent, some weren't. Some of you are lucky and got everything for free, some of you got nothing. But remember, when you're out on the ice you're all equals. And there's one thing you need to know: desire always beats luck."

That sounds inspiring. And it is. One would be nuts to say no to Sune.

The novel, it turned out, was written by Fredrik Backman, a Swedish college dropout who was working as a forklift driver at a food warehouse when he wrote his first novel A Man Called Ove. He signed up for night and weekend shifts so he could write during the day. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Fredrik Backman, but not Sune, who stated "desire always beats luck."