Just Me: The Kratik Malhotra Blog

I still remember getting onto the plane in Paris, boarding a flight to Cincinnati to get to the United States, having a heart filled with enthusiasm, an adrenalin gushing through the veins and a smile sparkling with chime written all over my face. As I left home, I described it as a voyage, and one that was to be my greatest adventure and the toughest challenge that I ever would see. I had two choices right in front of me. Either I could have done things that most do - concentrate on my ‘primary’ objective, or I could have done stuff that people had written me off for. Being me: Naïve but natural, dreamer but determined, silly but happy, perpetually confused but peculiarly peaceful, and hardly religious but deeply spiritual, I couldn’t have gone for the former.

Moreover, having been blessed by Sri Sri Ravishankarji (Guruji), and having been told by Dinesh (Ghodke) Bhaiya, “When you have done everything possibly possible, He makes the Impossible possible,” I was too determined to hold back, only looking for a chance to prove people wrong. I wanted to be an example to every Indian kid growing up, who had ever dared to dream, and was sick and tired of the 'engineering' monotony. So, I built my ship and got ready mentally to set sail in order to eventually stop at Manchester United.

As I landed in Cincinnati, it was exactly how I had imagined it to be, maybe even better. I had to pinch myself for a second and tell the little boy inside of me, “Heck yeah, I am in America!” I had left India on a positive note: as a good – and not a gossip – soccer journalist, as a decent soccer marketer and a pretty-good soccer analyst. I remember my last couple of days in India well and especially that one incident when I went up to Khalid Jamil, one of the finest Indian soccer coaches, to tell him that I would be moving to US to pursue a two year Masters’ course in Sports Management. Listening to which he replied, “Toh fir idhar aa ke kaam karna”, which translates to ‘come back to India to work’. Moreover, he had patted me on the back to say, “Mehnat karna, tu accha karega.” Translating to, ‘work hard, you will do well’.

Getting such comments from a man whom I had an enormous respect for was like a blessing, making me swim (and not drown) in my own tears of sheer gratitude. In fact, I still get shivers as I think about that meeting and his words. Some things are absolutely incredible and unforgettable. Taking his words like his blessing, I had become stronger deep inside. In school and in college, I had failed only to get up, prove my worth and win, and although I knew it was going to be tough, I wasn’t worried.

 “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” - Paulo Coelho

My primary aim as I started with my Masters’ program at the Florida State University was to find a place to work on campus and after hearing that I could deal in soccer technology, FSU Seminole soccer did not hesitate even once before presenting me with an opportunity to work for the team and analyze their soccer games. I thank the coaches for that. They were brilliant to me.

As soccer rolled, Finnegan's followed and watching English Premier League on the weekends with soccer fans became an attraction. Soon, occasional parties followed and FSU life had started to set in. I still remember my first party at Stetson's at the end of which I promised myself to never party again. I was hit by a massive thunderstorm named 'culture shock'. I had seen it all in movies but seeing it first hand was different. I was so moved back then, but now, I can look at the entire incident and laugh my heart out. It was classic international student moment! How I sat in a corner and said, "No, no, no! This is wrong!" Hahahahaha!

But what was the ‘impossible dream’? It wasn’t working for FSU Soccer, was it? No, it wasn’t. The impossible dream was to live like how I was living like in India, but even better. It was to inspire people, gain love and most importantly, make the most of my ability, learn more than I could and become the best of me. In short, in Guruji’s words, I wanted to “walk with feet light but leave my footprints behind.” In spiritual terms, I didn’t know how to do it but I had an ‘intention’, and it worked out superbly well.

“Every noble work is at first impossible.” - Thomas Carlyle

I got a teaching assistantship wherein I inspired people. To be true, I taught an introductory Art of Living course and they loved it. Now, obviously, I couldn’t teach an Art of Living course. Smiling relentlessly and talking about the small problems in life, and teaching students how to smile through them was my objective. I believe, I did a decent job at it. Well, at least, some of the testimonials and course evaluations suggest the same.

Personally, teaching as a part of my TA was not enough and I wanted to contribute more, so, I decided on teaching stress-relief programs to some very special people who needed it the most: the homeless. What an experience that was. I remember leading them through their first meditation (yog nidra) and after seeing them come out of the practice, they were smiling like I had never seen them smile. It was out of this world. I cannot describe it. It was extraordinary. It’s moments like those that I feel so proud and grateful to God for having me learn, understand and experience spirituality. Really, what’s better than teaching people to relieve their stress on freewill, believe in themselves, feel lighter and stationing a smile on their face? Nothing, ask me.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney

I went on to work in performance analysis and sponsorship for IMG Academy (click to read how it was a dream come true) with some of the biggest names in American sport. Later, I became one of the only handful fewpeople in the world to get featured on the Catapult Sports, a technology that I learned at IMG, website. I also got a chance to speak through Skype in my very own class. Now, I am back in Tallahassee and I am working with FSU Seminoles Football in performance analysis on Catapult at the Florida State University. With only a month left for the season to start, watch us becoming national champions this year. Watch us play at Doak and see how we tear past oppositions to lift the championship.

On the way, I met some wonderful people and who loved me more than I could ever imagine. They called me a friend, a brother and a mate. I have the best friends ever!

All I wanted was a shot at the sports industry abroad and at times, even I have to shake myself to see where I am. It’s not NY Yankess, but had you offered it a year ago, I would have taken it without thinking and had you told me I would be here five years ago, I would have called you one out of your sense. However, on the other hand, it’s only a fraction of where I want to be. My dream is Manchester United and is still a distance away, but – in Dinesh Bhaiya’s words – I am doing everything possible to make the impossible dream possible. Every morning that I wake up, I smile, I feel grateful and I say to myself, “Let’s win it!” before going to work. It’s a divine feeling, believe me.

Friends, opportunity, confidence, love, knowledge, exposure, skills and an experience of a lifetime, a miraculous journey, the Florida State University has given me more than what I could have asked for.

Today is my graduation. I am a student today, I will be an Alumni tomorrow, but a Nole for the rest of my life.

I thank God for everything as it’s him for who I am and where I have reached. It’s Him due to whom that a little Indian boy, who came with massive aspirations, to America can now write a blogpost describing how he is living his dream under the sun and is on the path to get to his dream destination, Manchester United. Getting to Manchester United may seem like a miracle, but I rely on miracles, don't I? Yes, I do.

“I tell you, nothing is going to happen here. I wish we were working for IMG.” ---  My friend’s words while sitting in the parking lot of an Indian soccer stadium, during our marketing stint at an Indian soccer club, having failed to fill the seats with people.

Many of you might remember my blog-post, written about two and a half years ago, ‘A Touch Closer’. It was about how after being rejected by this software company, Tieto, God presented me with an opportunity to work and get paid, for what was a lot of money for me back then, by the largest soccer data and analytics company in Asia, Real Time Sportscast (RTS), as a soccer commentator and analyst.

After RTS, I went on to write for the largest soccer website in the world, market the biggest and the best professionally managed club in India, and in the past five months, I have interned with the largest sport management company in the world. I have come a long way but it's only 1% of where I want to be. Reflecting back, that job with RTS did end up getting me a touch closer.

At RTS, I was taught about stats, how they are needed, their importance, value and most importantly, their use. I started from scratch, did online soccer commentary of games, helped collect statistics and worked as a statistician, helped report the statistics and most importantly, working with technology and data, and analyzed them to aid the teams playing in the Indian Soccer League (I-League). It was a great experience.

When I moved to the United States, I was put on board of the FSU Women’s Soccer Team as a soccer analyst. It was a great year-long experience and it helped me in mastering my dream technology/software, Prozone. Now, I am called a ‘Prozone Expert’ by a few people in the industry and having learned Dartfish, I look to take my analysis to the next levels.

Late September 2012, I had applied for an internship in Sponsorship with the academy of the world’s largest sport management company, International Management Group (IMG), and they came back to me asking me to focus on another area, along with Sponsorship, Performance Technology (PT). I had offers for a marketing internship with NASCAR in Daytona, a marketing (branding) internship with Florida Panthers and a communications internship with the Philadelphia Union, but when IMG came calling with PT, my choice was clear, even though one of the other internships offered to pay me an hourly wage and another would have covered my housing and food.

When I started with IMG, that thing of ‘working for IMG’ had sunk in, completely. With my first week here, I was still caught in the ’IMG awe’. Seeing the work-culture, the professionalism among staff, the facility and infrastructure, the star athletes on campus, my job and responsibilities, the level of technology used, the knowledge to gain…everything…it was just marvelous, and I couldn’t believe that I was there. And to my loss, I, sort of, had started feeling that the organization was too big for me, and I had started undervaluing myself. I wish I had respected myself as much as I had done at any of the places where I worked in the past, but it was a priceless lesson from a learning standpoint. I won’t lie, I had a shaky start, but I improved in my work and partly, it was due to the IMG staff, who me feel like I was a part of the team. From the bottom of my heart, I thank them for that. It underlines their professionalism and management skill.

Alright, back to joining IMG. When I was told that I am cleared to join IMG, I remembered my friend’s quote (mentioned at the start of the post). It was all like a dream. I say, “I rely on miracles,” and that is what it was, it was a miracle. From a good old electronics engineer, who only ever sat for one job interview because he was clear that he wanted to get to Manchester United and Sky Sports, to a boy who interviewed players from several top clubs including Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur, and is followed by Sky Sports journalists on Twitter, to one who was asked to be the face of the private television of an Indian soccer club that had their best season this year, to a boy who worked every day with the number one collegiate women’s soccer team in America on the number one soccer analysis software in the world used by the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Arsenal, and to a boy who was stepping into something that he considered absolutely massive, it was unbelievable how far I had come.

My internship was dual-departmental, and for the sponsorship department, I worked on sponsorship activation, sponsorship representation, inventory management, sponsor events, sponsor-related social media interaction and sponsor-apparel allotment, amongst several things. Working and interacting with some of the top sponsorship professionals at IMG, along with the personnel from sponsors that visited the IMG Academy campus onsite, was a magnificent experience.

For the performance department, I dealt with some of the state-of-the-art technologies that were there to learn. My job in performance revolved around working on Catapult, but later, I also started working on Dartfish and worked on match analysis with IMG’s under-14 soccer team. It was a major challenge but it was terrific. Working with Catapult was a little tough because I did not have the necessary exercise science knowledge needed but I was there to implement the technology, and I was very clear in that aspect.

The Catapult Guy! (Real Time Analysis)

I believe, I did the best job that I possibly could have done and in the process, learned a lot. Dartfish was awesome. Knowing how to use the tagging feature in Dartfish has taught me how to integrate various technologies together maximizing its use. I thought Match Analysis (MA) would be a piece of cake for me, having worked on the best technology that was there to work on, in Prozone. But Match Analysis was different as it required a lot more manual work, but was no big deal for me to adapt. However, with enough on the table to work with, finding time to work with MA was tough, especially because I was not bound to work on when I started. Working with MA and IMG soccer was something that I took up due to my love for soccer and my two-year analysis experience in the sport.

In all, IMG offered me an invaluable experience. In fact, I would have paid to work on some of the things that I worked on and gain the knowledge that I gained. It was very-very special indeed. Every single morning I would wake up, smile and say, “I am living my dream,” and then, leave my apartment for work. I have loved every moment of my time in Bradenton, Florida. I still remember when some of my colleagues brought in a desk and set it up for me; what a moment that was! I was so touched. Five minutes after that happened, I went into the restroom, locked myself in one of the toilets and cried. To me, it showed that I was valued and loved. It was such a touching thing. Even on my final day, gifts and comments like these made me melt. By the way, in the picture is a shakeweight gifted to me by one of the 'crew' members. I will miss the crew; everyone, absolutely everyone.


There are so many memories that I am taking back home with me and holding which in the highest regard, I would cherish these for a lifetime.

My office for the summer - Doak Campbell Stadium

Hey reader, if you are looking for an internship or a job, apply for a position at IMG Academy, it may not only fulfill your expectation, but it may even supersede it.

As for me, it’s time to move on and further enhance my learning. Next stop: Florida State Football. Yes, I am heading back to Tallahassee. As my Tally lads may say, “Back In the hood.” In the hood, yes, but who knows, I may head back to IMG in the future again :)

Yesterday, it was IMG; tomorrow it will be Manchester United. My dreams and aspirations make me a dreamer. Thanks for reading this post from the nib of my pen.

Follow your heart. Have faith. Live your dream.

Love,

Kratik