Argentina defeated Poland 2-0 to advance to the next round.
Messi missed a penalty in the first half, but Argentina’s new generation took control of their own destiny.
If Argentina had been eliminated because of Messi’s missed penalty, and Messi had ended his World Cup journey with a missed penalty, it’s not hard to imagine the storm of criticism the global media would have unleashed today.
As an intense sport that tests speed, explosiveness, quick reactions, and coordination, the prime age in soccer is 25; by 28, a player is already considered a veteran.

What about Argentina?

The starting 11 has an average age of 29.6, with key attackers like Gómez and Di María already 34 years old.
The team’s linchpin, Messi, is 35.
Although he missed a penalty in the first half, Messi’s playmaking in the second half was exceptional—though his age of 35 did show.

After taking a 1-0 lead, Messi made a long run into the box but failed to adjust his footwork properly when taking the shot.

With a 2-0 lead, he drove forward and fired a low shot, but it was saved.

In fact, at this World Cup, nearly all the starting players on the field are middle-aged men who are beginning to feel the strain of their advancing years.
Brazil’s Neymar, 30 years old.
France’s Benzema, 34 years old.
And that “wind-chasing youth” from Portugal is now a 37-year-old veteran.
Many people born in the 1970s and 1980s started watching soccer with the likes of Zidane, Ronaldo, Raúl, and Shevchenko.
Before we knew it, our youth had faded away.
The prime of life is nothing more than a few World Cups.
It’s not just soccer; the rapid changes of the times are evident everywhere.
It’s a modernization brought about by a technological explosion.
In the 1970s, China hadn’t even fully completed the First Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution was far from reaching the countryside, and the Third Industrial Revolution had barely begun to take root in the United States.

However, from 1978 to today, China has fully completed its steam-driven, electrified, and informatized transformation, completely transforming the landscape overnight.
Thanks to technological progress, our fate has taken a completely different turn.

Cars have entered millions of households, mobile phone ownership ranks first globally, and we have stepped from an agricultural society into an industrial one, chasing the information age.
Many small counties that once relied on farming and fishing for a living can now, thanks to their industrial strengths, get a share of the global pie and even become the focus of the world.
And what about today?

Old technologies have reached their limits, while new ones are still on the horizon.
Technologically speaking, Newtonian mechanics and Einstein’s theory of relativity have been explored to their fullest extent, and chip design has evolved from centimeter and millimeter scales to the nanoscale.

Industrially, Ford’s assembly line system and Drucker’s planning and organizational management systems have been in use for decades; large-scale industrial production and services have already reached the limits of human capability.
Socially, the debt-driven economic model has brought money from the next few decades—or even centuries—into use today. Businesses, households, and governments have taken turns leveraging up, causing debt to skyrocket.

Technology, industry, and debt have all reached their limits.
From 2005 to 2016, money was still easy to make; clients had ample budgets, and attracting investment was relatively straightforward—many people can attest to this.
Young people were starting families, buying homes, and spending; businesses were raising capital, expanding, and turning a profit, with everyone talking about the internet and the “science of success.”

Unfortunately, that era of technological explosion and rapid growth—the era of incremental expansion—has passed.
For a long time now, humanity has not seen another earth-shattering breakthrough like the steam engine, electricity, or the computer.
With technology, industry, and debt all reaching their limits, the world has entered an era of competition over existing resources.
Yet most people come from the era of incremental growth; from their mindset to their approach to business, they remain stuck in the past, completely unaware that a new cycle has quietly arrived.

In the era of incremental growth, development was universal.
In 2000, you could walk into any foreign company and become a white-collar professional; buying a home anywhere meant getting on the property ladder.

In the era of stock, development is structural.
Foreign companies like Oracle, which monopolized the Chinese market for years, are now exiting China one after another. It’s not that the Chinese market has lost its prospects, but that Chinese companies have grown strong.
While you’re still obsessed with yesterday, the future has already arrived quietly.
Whether individuals, businesses, or local governments, it’s essential to shift our mindset and catch up.
First, we must keep learning.
The era of following the crowd and merely going through the motions is completely over. From knowledge and mindset to professional skills, you must transform yourself into a well-rounded professional to cope with the fierce competition of the era of existing resources.
Second, you must learn to break through vertically.
In the era of growth, as long as you knew how to “spread your resources thin,” you could gain a lead through economies of scale.In the era of saturation, one must achieve vertical breakthroughs—moving into higher tiers or newer fields—to continue reaping the benefits of the times.
In this era, the extent of an individual’s achievements, the success of a company’s development, and the standing a industrial park can secure within the province or nationwide—
On the surface, it depends on how well one seizes opportunities when the tide rises;
but in reality, it depends even more on how much substance one has accumulated during calm waters.

Back to the World Cup.
On the surface, it seems like the end of an era of youth; in reality, it’s a sign of the times changing.
During the heyday of Serie A, the league was filled with eye-catching, attacking football. But when La Liga and the Premier League took the baton, they began to prioritize physical confrontation and counterattacks.
For the sake of results and rankings, who cares if it’s entertaining?
Even the much-anticipated World Cup has become increasingly dull, with exquisite ball skills and intricate teamwork growing ever rarer.

Zidane was provoked by an opponent in the final and bid farewell to the pitch with a red card. The legendary Ronaldo was left battered and bruised by a tackle.

Thus, a strange paradox has emerged in the World Cup.

When you stay true to yourself and give your all, money and fame come rolling in.

But when you treat fame and fortune as your primary goals—even to the point of measuring and quantifying them—wealth and glory gradually slip away.
In a sense, this is also a portrait of our youth.

When we were young, we imagined the world to be simple; we dared to give our all—traveling to three cities in two days, visiting ten companies, and following up on a single corporate site selection project for two years.
Now, however, we are plagued by anxiety and overthink everything.
We have become complacent and jaded.
Yet, youth and age are not necessarily entirely related, because the essence of youth has never changed—

positivity, passion, courage, and dedication.
Let it mature over time, and life will become bright without being glaring, smooth without being slick, and upright without being steep.

Just like Zidane, who missed out on the World Cup but has done quite well as a head coach.
Just like Portugal’s “Purple Army,” which not only brings along 22-year-old rookie Leão but also relies on 39-year-old veteran Pepe.

The Heavenly Way is vigorous; the noble person strives ceaselessly.

Physical youth may fade, but the passion deep within never ceases. Even in an era of stagnation, the experience and wisdom of veterans still have a place to shine.