You Only See It Once You Get It (Je gaat het pas zien als je het doorhebt)

You Only See It Once You Get It (Je gaat het pas zien als je het doorhebt)

21 November 2025

The title is a famous quote by Johan Cruijff, which Pieter Winsemius chose for his leadership book in 2004. Pieter was not only a partner at McKinsey but also a leading figure in the VVD and even served as a minister on behalf of the party. A fascinating man, when I first met him, not in person. Only twenty years later did I discover that he was the son of Albert Winsemius, the architect of Singapore’s economic model—a nation built on the principles of meritocracy, pragmatism, and honesty. And a showcase of nation-building. But that’s all beside the point.

The first book of Pieter’s that caught my attention was Never Play an Away Game (Speel nooit een uitwedstrijd). And whether The Blue Wave knew it or not, after November 18—our away game against Jamaica—they surely do now.

I notice that I increasingly use sports, especially football, as a metaphor to explain governance and management. It makes things much clearer for many more people. Earlier, I used Little League baseball in the same way. That influence comes from Winsemius, and he probably picked it up from someone else.

The point is that there are countless lessons to be learned from the success of the Curaçao national team. The most important lesson is meritocracy: the best players are selected. It doesn’t matter where they were born. It’s about vision, planning, allocating resources, and appointing the best available coach. We can examine all these aspects in more detail—and we should.

But first, we need to make one essential point: what works in sports—reaching the world’s top—can work in every domain, provided we apply the same formula. Let’s hope that this unprecedented success opens our eyes and inspires us to act accordingly. That means, for example, that people who are not performing in the positions they’ve been maneuvered into should be substituted. That we truly start selecting based on merit, just like the national coach does.

Or am I hallucinating? You only see it once you get it. Je gaat het pas zien als je het doorhebt.

Miguel Goede