There is something deeply amusing about human beings.
Give us a man who has spent years trying to achieve something, and we will find a thousand reasons to explain why he is not good enough.
Let him fail repeatedly, and we will turn his failures into jokes.
Let him finally succeed, and suddenly, we will remember that we always believed in him.
We will celebrate him. We will post his pictures. We will make inspirational quotes out of his journey. We will tell our children to learn from his determination.
And if you are not careful, you might even begin to wonder whether these are the same people who were laughing at him yesterday.
Harry Kane’s Ballon d’Or victory has brought this familiar human behaviour into sharp focus.
On Monday, October 26, 2026, the England and Bayern Munich striker finally claimed football’s most prestigious individual award, becoming the first English player to win the men’s Ballon d’Or since Michael Owen in 2001.
For Kane, it was a moment that capped a remarkable journey through football.
For the rest of us, however, there are lessons in his victory that go far beyond football.
Because somewhere in Nigeria, somebody is being mocked for not having a job yet.
Somebody is being ridiculed for still living with their parents.
Somebody is being called a failure because their business has not taken off.
Somebody is watching their mates get married, buy houses, travel abroad and achieve things while they are still struggling to figure out their next move.
And somewhere, somebody is beginning to believe that perhaps the people mocking them are right.
Kane’s journey offers a different perspective.
It reminds us that life is not always a race in which the person who starts first finishes first. Sometimes, the person everybody has written off is simply taking a longer route to their destination.
Here are four real-life lessons to learn from Harry Kane’s big win.
1. Patience: Your Time May Not Be Everybody Else’s Time
If there is one lesson Kane’s journey teaches us, it is that success does not always arrive when you expect it.
The striker had spent years building his career, scoring goals, breaking records and establishing himself as one of the finest forwards of his generation.
Yet, for all his individual achievements, the biggest prizes continued to elude him.
He was a prolific goalscorer. He was England’s captain. He had become Tottenham Hotspur’s all-time leading goalscorer.
But the trophies and individual recognition that many believed should accompany such achievements were not always forthcoming.
Then came Bayern Munich.
Kane left Tottenham in 2023 after spending much of his career at the London club. At the time, the decision was about more than a transfer. He wanted to win major trophies and compete at the highest level.
He had spent years doing the work.
Now, he wanted the reward.
And eventually, the reward came.
This is where the story becomes relatable.
Some people finish university at 21 and get their dream job before 25.
Others graduate at 28, spend years searching for opportunities and only begin to find their feet in their thirties.
Some people get married at 25.
Others meet the love of their lives at 38.
Some people start a business and become successful within two years.
Others spend a decade trying to make something work before the breakthrough finally comes.
The mistake is believing that because somebody else has arrived, your own journey has failed.
Kane’s victory is a reminder that being late is not the same as being lost.
You may not be where you want to be today. That does not mean you will never get there.
Your friends may be celebrating milestones you are still working towards.
Your younger colleagues may be earning more than you.
Your classmates may be living the life you once imagined for yourself.
But life is not a group assignment in which everybody must submit their success at the same time.
Sometimes, you simply have to keep going.
Because the most painful thing about impatience is that it can make you abandon a journey just before the destination comes into view.
2. People Love Success More Than They Love The Struggle
This is perhaps the most uncomfortable lesson from Kane’s victory.
Look at what happens when somebody becomes successful.
The celebrations are everywhere.
People who barely paid attention to their journey suddenly become experts on their greatness.
People who never supported their dreams begin to claim they knew the person would make it.
People who once questioned their abilities begin to describe them as an inspiration.
And the internet, as usual, becomes a festival of celebration.
But where were some of these people when the person was struggling?
Where were they when the jokes were flying?
Where were they when the failures became a subject of public ridicule?
Kane knows something about the burden of public expectation.
For years, he was criticised over Tottenham’s failure to win major trophies. His decision to leave the club also attracted debate, with some questioning whether he was abandoning the Premier League goal record chase for a different ambition.
There were jokes, arguments and endless discussions about what his career would ultimately mean if he never won a major trophy.
Now, he has the Ballon d’Or.
And suddenly, the conversation has changed.
This is not to say that everybody who celebrated Kane’s victory had mocked him before. Many people supported him throughout his career.
But his journey exposes a very familiar human tendency: we are often more interested in associating ourselves with success than in supporting people through the struggle that produces it.
Think about it.
When somebody is unemployed, people ask what they are doing with their life.
When that same person gets a good job, people ask how they got the opportunity.
When somebody is broke, they become a cautionary tale.
When they become wealthy, they become a motivational speaker.
When somebody’s business is failing, people advise them to quit.
When the business becomes successful, the same people want to know how they can invest.
This is why you must be careful not to measure your worth by the applause of people.
Some of those applauding you today may not have been there when you needed encouragement.
And some of those mocking you today may be the first to claim they believed in you when the story eventually changes.
Do your work.
Build your life.
But do not become addicted to public approval.
Because the same crowd that celebrates your success may be the crowd that makes your failure unbearable.
3. Never Allow Your Failures To Become Your Identity
One of the cruelest things society does to struggling people is to turn their setbacks into permanent identities.
You failed an examination?
You are now the person who failed.
Your business collapsed?
You are now the person who cannot do business.
Your relationship ended?
You are now the person nobody wants.
You have spent years trying to get a breakthrough?
You are now the person who never makes progress.
This is how people begin to internalise the opinions of others.
They stop seeing failure as something that happened to them.
They begin to see failure as who they are.
Kane’s career offers a powerful counterexample.
Before becoming one of the most celebrated footballers in the world, he had to fight for opportunities.
He went through loan spells at clubs including Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before establishing himself at Tottenham.
He was not always the superstar.
He was not always the player whose name commanded attention.
He had to earn his place.
And even after becoming one of the world’s leading strikers, he still faced the question of whether he could win the biggest prizes.
Yet, he kept playing.
He kept scoring.
He kept building.
Eventually, the player who had spent years being judged by what he had not won became the man holding the Ballon d’Or.
The lesson is simple.
Your failure is an event. It is not your identity.
You may have failed at something.
You may have made terrible decisions.
You may have lost money.
You may have disappointed people.
But none of those things automatically means you are a failure as a human being.
The world may be quick to label you.
Do not help it by accepting the label.
Learn from what went wrong.
Make adjustments.
Try again.
And if you have to start from the beginning, start.
Because sometimes the only difference between the person people call a failure and the person they call an inspiration is what happens after the failure.
4. Sometimes, You Must Leave What You Love To Become What You Want
This may be the most difficult lesson of all.
Kane spent much of his career at Tottenham Hotspur.
The club was home.
It was where he developed, became captain, broke records and established himself as one of the greatest players in its history.
But there was something he wanted that Tottenham could not give him at the time.
Major trophies.
So, in 2023, he made the difficult decision to leave.
It was not a decision without risk.
He was leaving a club where he was loved, admired and familiar with everything around him.
He was moving to another country, another league and another football culture.
He was leaving behind the comfort of the familiar for the uncertainty of a new beginning.
And it was not just about winning trophies.
The move would also bring new expectations, new pressure and new challenges.
But Kane understood that sometimes, the environment you love may not be the environment that allows you to achieve everything you want.
This is a lesson many people struggle with.
You may love your job, but it may no longer offer opportunities for growth.
You may love your relationship, but it may be holding you back from becoming the person you need to be.
You may love your hometown, but the opportunities you need may be elsewhere.
You may love the people around you, but their expectations may be keeping you trapped in a version of yourself you have outgrown.
The difficult question is this:
Are you staying because the place is right for you, or because leaving would be uncomfortable?
Sometimes, growth requires a difficult decision.
Sometimes, you must leave the familiar.
Sometimes, you must disappoint people who would prefer you to remain exactly where you are.
And sometimes, the life you want is waiting on the other side of a decision you are afraid to make.
Kane’s victory does not mean everybody should abandon their jobs, relationships or homes.
It means that loyalty should not become a prison.
Know when to stay.
Know when to move.
And have the courage to choose the future you want, even when it means leaving behind a place that helped you become who you are.
The Bigger Lesson: Keep Going, But Do Not Forget Who Stayed
There is another part of Kane’s story that deserves attention.
His victory was not achieved alone.
He has spoken publicly about the support of his wife, Kate, and the sacrifices they made throughout his career.
In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged the people who stood by him through the ups and downs.
This matters because success often looks like an individual achievement from the outside.
We see the person holding the trophy.
We see the person receiving the award.
We see the person standing on the stage.
But we do not always see the people who supported them when there was no trophy to celebrate.
The partner who stayed through the uncertainty.
The family member who encouraged them when things were not working.
The friend who believed in them when their own confidence was running low.
The people who did not need a success story before they could show love.
Those are the people worth remembering.
Because when the applause eventually comes, it is easy to become distracted by the crowd.
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It is easy to forget the people who were there when there was nothing to applaud.
Kane’s Ballon d’Or victory is a reminder that the journey matters.
The setbacks matter.
The difficult decisions matter.
The people who stood by you matter.
And the years when nobody was paying attention matter, too.
Because they are all part of the story.
Conclusion: Do Not Let Today’s Struggle Convince You That Tomorrow Is Impossible
Harry Kane’s victory is more than a football story.
It is a story about patience in a world that wants instant results.
It is about continuing to work when people have stopped expecting anything from you.
It is about refusing to let failure define you.
It is about making difficult decisions when the familiar no longer serves your ambition.
And it is about understanding that public applause is often loudest when the struggle is already over.
So, if you are struggling today, take heart.
You do not need everybody to believe in you.
You do not need to prove your worth to every person who has mocked you.
You do not need to achieve everything at the same time as your friends.
You only need to keep working towards the life you want, while remaining honest about the changes you need to make along the way.
And when your moment finally comes, remember this:
The people celebrating you may not all have been there when you were struggling.
Do not let that make you bitter.
Just remember who you were, what it took to get there, and the people who stood beside you before the world began to clap.
Because one day, the story may change.
And the person everybody thought would never make it may become the person everybody wants to celebrate.