Finding Mastery: Conversations With Michael Gervais

This conversation is with Ugo Ehiogu, whom I just met in Great Britain. He was a former English professional footballer. If you're in the states you would call him a soccer player. He had a long career- from 1989 to 2009 and at the time I met him he was the coach of the Tottenham Hotspur under-23 team. Ugo had this inner brilliance, this humility and thoughtfulness that was apparent right from the first interaction. It was the handshake and the eye contact that gave it away. It was the combination of the way that he carried himself with the words that he chose and maybe even more striking was the care that he took to choose the words to find the most authentic way to express what he's come to understand. Ugo and I were not able to finish this conversation and it's heartbreaking. It's for two reasons. The first made sense. He needed to run out onto the field and begin his coaching for his under-23 team. The second reason is harder to process. Ugo passed away at the age of 44 before we were able t