The boy was ecstatic. After all, most boys his age wouldn’t have been able to win even 1 tournament at this age. And he had won the under-12 junior championships.

His parents were beaming. They had produced a prodigy, who at a young age of 9 years had excelled at playing table tennis. On the way to his tournament wins, he had beaten some other boys who were 2-3 years older than he was. Surely, they had a winner in their hands.

His coach was proud. He had honed the boy’s raw skills and made him adept at playing matches. He was surely going to win more, and with it would come the recognition for his coach also.

His friends were happy. They could now say that they were thick and close with the rising star in the school circuit. And they would often be able to go for these matches with free passes. Who wouldn’t want to…

The pattern of winning kept on repeating itself. Year after year. The boy became a young legend, ready to take on the world.

School finished, the boy entered a college. He could easily get in the top one on the basis of his sporting accomplishments. He had won the under-15 as well two years ago and was preparing to turn professional. They all wanted the best athletes to brag about their all-round personality development story.

Ultimately, at the age of 18, he turned pro. He broke into the scene with a bang and made a big splash. Ex-players were keen to take him under their belt and coach him. Administrators wanted to ensure they wouldn’t come in the way of a medal prospect. People around him always told him he is the best and no one can beat him.

This story kept on going in the expected direction for the next couple of years. The feelings kept on getting satiated and inflated at the same time. Of being more ecstatic. More sure. More proud. More happy. More confident.

No one noticed, but slowly that confidence and pride turned into a big ego. Also, into a boastful nature. The boy and everyone around him started bragging about how he was the best. How he could do no wrong. And how others couldn’t match up to him.

Everyone thought he could do it because it wouldn’t affect anyone. It was anyways just this one time. But those times kept on adding up.

No one paid attention to how it was affecting the boy’s game. How he had become over confident and dismissive of other players. And his coach. And his parents. And his friends. They all kept on feeding his ego. Because, after all, he was special.

And then, it all unravelled. With less and less practice and more and more distractions, errors creeped in. With less time focused on improving self and more in making fun of other players, small mistakes became bigger.

In the next tournament, the unexpected happened. The boy faltered at the finish line. But no one dared to call out his mistakes. No one attempted to talk to him about what was going wrong. They called it out as just a bad day and went about their own business. For, it was business after all.

As he played more tournaments, the performance bar kept on getting lower and lower. Slowly, those who applauded his every more, disappeared. Those who were close to him were shut down by him because he had always known that he was the chosen one, he was doing the right thing. Slowly, some of them went away.

Even this didn’t alarm him. He dismissed them as deserters and continued in his ways. He lost the touch he had in his game and became a regular, average player. While he chose to rest on his past laurels, others moved on and became better.

Ultimately, the one who was supposed to bring name, fame, and money, passed into the annals of time as an also-ran.

Only if someone would have taught him humility. Of being confident about himself but not being dismissive of others. Perhaps, if someone would have called him out at the right time. Things would have been different.

But alas, everyone was only interested in bragging rights…