Balance is the key to Barcelona's success

The result of balancing individual glory
with teamwork

According to former Argentinian coach Basile, Barcelona and Messi are successful because the Spanish team plays, precisely, as a team. "However, for Argentina, the first thing any player does is give it to Messi and hope that he will create everything" he explains. In addition, defensive players in South America are much less "uncompromising"" and the referees are more likely to let them get away with it.

The result of trying to make Messi do
everything 

Barcelona continues to defeat Real Madrid, even when their rivals are favorites and locals. Messi continues to lack that shine when he plays for his country. A possible explanation is the balance between the collective and the individual that has been achieved by the blaugranas. Barcelona plays a game of high passing rates and cooperating with teammates without placing the individuals as mere pieces of the whole. They have managed to leave from for each of the player to develop his own individual style, to become world-wide celebrities and to reach success on the personal level as evidenced by Messi's Ballon d'Ors and Xavi's World Soccer Player of the Year. In opposition, Real Madrid has the Argentine national team are almost completely dependent on their number one star and place very little value on collective importance.

Niblock, Gary. "Barcelona play as a team, Argentina rely on Messi - Alfio Basile." Goal.com. N.p., 23 Jul 2011. Web. 7 Jan. 2012. <http://www.goal.com/en/news/60/south-america/2011/07/23/2587922/barcelona-play-as-a-team-argentina-rely-on-messi-alfio>.

Churchill and Gorbachev: Rise and Decline of Their Empires

Open minded but too passive

Strong but stubborn

During World War II, Winston Churchill's strong and powerful personality helped him toughen Britain and defeat none other than Adolf Hitler. On the opposite pole, Mikhail Gorbachev's open-minded and calm attitude helped to gradually reduce decades of oppression in the USSR.

However, after their huge accomplishments, each of them experienced large defeats. Churchill's iron-fisted rule over India only aggravated their injures, fueling an independence movement lead by his nemesis, Mohandas Gandhi. Similarly, Gorbachev's passivity would end up in the disintegration of the USSR. It's not that he caused fall of the superpower, he just failed to take measures to prevent the breakdown.

Balance: tolerant + determined

In terms of balance, both Gorbachev and Churchill had very strong positive attributes that brought a better society for hundreds of millions of people. But during a ruler's times, different problems in nature cannot all be resolved be the same approaches and their focus on either aggressiveness or open-mindedness proved to be costly when the opposite value was needed. Leaders should know that the virtues that have given them success must frequently be complemented with its opposite virtue to prevent the type of problems that have been described. Gandhi, for instance, was a man who was more inclined toward the peaceful and tolerant side of the spectrum, but unlike his two peers, Mohandas was able to move towards the middle by knowing when to be unyielding to his oppressors.

Anand, A. (2011, Dece 21). Anti-thesis - gorbachev and churchill. Russia and India Report. Retrieved from http://indrus.in/articles/2011/12/21/anti-thesis_gorbachev_and_churchill_14055.html