The Best Water Polo Article Ever Written

Less then a year and a half ago I was just a guy who posted that 15 second video. Making certain moves elevated me to a place where across the world and on two languages “Who’s who” of the Water Polo world reads what I have to say. I have decided to write both on English and on my native language. Writing in English gives me potentially a way bigger reach, but writing in Croatian brings me a more influential one. Not to disrespect the rest of the Water Polo world, but I think that the Balkan region is still the most respected one when it comes to the true knowledge about the Game of Water Polo.

To most of you there is not a logical reason for my relevance and most Water Polo players are a little bit annoyed by me. I must warn you that a lot of athletes are a bit like mama boys. They don’t like to share the spotlight and love to speak in jealousy after. Well they can suck it. Last time that I checked it was me who sparked this whole social media situation that we have in today’s Water Polo. I made Water Polo acknowledge, accept and adjust itself to the 21. Century. Don’t get me wrong. I am fully aware that if it wasn’t me, it would have been somebody else. But it wasn’t, was it…? People can be annoyed by me, and they can be annoyed by the way I carry myself, but by now it’s hard to deny my existence, relevance and influence. If you were sleeping on me in the past, you will find yourself slipping in the future.

Latest development of events can also confirm you that. I hope I don’t sound like I am experiencing schadenfreude or anything similar, far from it, but I am pretty sure that the value of my stock as a Water Polo player has lately grown even more. How? Let me put it for you in this way. Forget everything you know. This is just a hypothetical situation. If you were an owner, or a president of a certain Water Polo club and you have two choices. Would you rather win everything there is to win, but end the year with a financial deficit, or would you rather lose every game and end the season with a financial surplus? Now I think that the answer here is pretty clear. If it bothers you, then I predict a big disappointment happening in your life, and when it happens please think of me and of this article haha.

Due to current development of the situation the liquidity that companies are having is limited and their online shops will have to solve a lot of these cash-flow issues. This online game just became a lot more serious. How serious? Well, the companies that end up not having a good online shop will end up with a shorter end of the stick. I will repeat myself again. Not the companies that don’t have an online shop, but the companies that don’t have a good one. Having an online shop stopped being important. Having a good online shop started being essential. Think of it like a curve. A cash-flow curve of some sorts. If an unexpected event should happen, as long as the company is making a certain calculated amount of online sales it should limit the possibilities of the company having any cash flow issues to a minimum. Momentum is a powerful thing and a company that has cash-flow issues can hardly gain any. As you can all see the latest development of events has not stopped, or affected my momentum one bit. In fact it only grew. If it annoys you. Sorry, but not sorry. I hope that you will pay more attention in the future. With that being said I must also add that these are not the stuff which amateur athletes should pay any attention to. Amateurs should stay in their lane and listen what their coaches have to say. The professional athletes should think for themselves and try to think, not only outside of the box, but “ahead of the curve” also. Pun intended.

There is a clear difference between an amateur and a professional athlete. As an amateur you are allowed to compete and as a professional you are paid to promote. In Water Polo this border is a bit blurred and we often have situations where amateurs play against professionals. Except not participating at the Olympic games I have squeezed the most I could from my amateur career. It’s time to stop selling myself short and turn Pro. For me turning Pro means playing for a club that plays on the biggest and greatest stage that professional Water Polo has to offer. LEN Champions League. As far as I am considered we can all call it The World Series. Why? Well if a team wins the NBA, or the MLB, or the NFL they call themselves the World Champs. Right? Well, if I am to win the Champions League I will also start calling myself a World Champ. If somebody has an issue with that, no problem. He/she/it will not be invited to the after party. I understand that you might not bet your money on me, but I would also advise you not to bet against me. I’ve been around and I’ve payed the piped piper as one might say. I might come into the whole situation a bit later, but I came more then prepared. In fact I came so prepared that Water Polo was not prepared for me. Believe it or not, but my articles are also read by the members of LEN and FINA. Two of the most respected Water Polo entities. They too have also taken a page out of my book. As have other Water Polo media outlets who also like to read my articles trying to find some inspiration and guidance for themselves. Smart moves from all of them. I also think that it’s in the best interest of all of them that I come as close as I can to raising that Champions League trophy. On my own I can bring more new eyes on our sport then everyone else combined. LEN included. I will bring more ratings and likes to other media outlets then I do to my own. I am a mainstream media bomb just waiting to explode. I will make people who never thought about watching a Water Polo game to invest their time and emotions in my situation. Either to watch me win, or to enjoy watching me lose, but they will watch me. Once the Water Polo people see that even someone like me, who played Water Polo in the middle of nowhere, was able to change something for himself, everybody is going to stop waiting on LEN, or FINA, or the presidents and mecenas of their clubs to solve any of their issues and start making their own moves. If I could do it, then what’s their excuse, right? By the time I am done chasing my own goals and dreams inside of this sport I will raise a generation of go-getters who stopped waiting on anybody for anything. Something like that you can’t train, teach, or even market into reality. You can only share your own story as honestly as you can and let the others find their own lessons, motivation and influences inside of it. The most important thing is to show that you are human. To show that you bleed too. Show that you too sometimes get the blues. How else are other humans going to identify with you? Water Polo players like to present themselves as this flawless individuals. Big strong man’s man whom every brand should only hope to sponsor. Fuck you and your fucking brand. How about that. By bringing new type of sponsors I will bring completely new markets and open doors for new target groups to our sport. I hope you are all taking notes.

When I asked Andrija Martić, the founder of this water polo page, if I may be allowed to write articles on his page he happily allowed me, but under one condition. On this page we talk only about Water Polo. No politics! That is a good social media rule that turned into a good life advice. When you are in the media, or working with the media, or working around the media it is very easy to get carried away, lose yourself and instead  focusing on the quality of your product start wondering about the quantity of the people reading it. Don’t get fooled. Click-bait is a real thing. Even if you decide to publish explicitly click-bait type of material, which always comes with a lot of backlash from your readers, your articles will still be making you enough clicks to continue and run your page. Nothing against anybody. Everybody wants to eat and I have nothing against that concept, but we don’t do that here. Yes we try to make our articles more readable, or social media friendly. We also discuss and try to find out which title would fit best for a certain article, but we never publish titles without articles, without Water Polo and without personal integrity behind it all.

With the panic attack trilogy I have finished one chapter of my journey. Now its time for the next one. I am done writing articles about Water Polos economy, mentality, reality and future. I am done writing articles period, but I am not done writing. From now on I will only focus on having dialogues and making interviews with the other people from and around Water Polo. I have a voice inside of my community. Now I want to use my voice to give other people their own voices, just like Andrija has done to me. As I write this I am also simultaneously working on more then one interview with people from a couple of continents. Not bad for a guy who posted that 15 second video less then a year and a half ago haha.

If you are ever to find yourself in such a situation like I found myself with that video, be prepared to find out just how many people around you are frustrated with their own lives. I learned that the circle of people you have around yourself can heavily affect the outcome of everything you do in your life. Keep your circle healthy. It’s not important, it’s essential. After “The Interview” came out I realized that I need to take few steps back so that later I can take ten steps forward. As soon as I was sure that I had this blogging thing secured, I started to think about what to do next. I put Water Polo on hold and for the first time in 20 years I focused on making moves outside of the pool. I applied for a job at the local Decathlon. Changed clubs. To remain somewhat fit I started to train with a small local club, but remained fully focused and dedicated to my new daily job at Decathlon. Plan was that once I do come back to playing Water Polo I will come back with a lot more of substance, value and all-round better understanding of the whole game. Inside and outside of the pool. Online and Offline. I might have taken a big risk by disfranchising myself from everybody for a second, but now, in more ways then one, I am able to help those around me and those I work with. One example. After my interview with Mr. Eric Florio, whom with I had a nice talk about the Water Polo Video Game that he is developing, we stayed in contact and now we speak regularly. We bounce ideas of each other and we are trying to find ways to help his project make waves. Pun intended. Btw Mr. Florio lives in Brazil. In the whole of Water Polo’s history there never was somebody in a position like I am in. People might say that if I was good I would have already played in the Champions League, and once again I tell you that you are wrong.  I had my reasons, but I pulled through. I came in a bit later, but I came prepared. I came in not as a 20 year old boy like most of these players come in, but as 30 year old self made, independent, mean motherfucker who doesn’t give a fuck. Are you aware that almost every player inside of Champions League is afraid to play against me? Mind you I have never played a single Championship League game. I know very few of them, but believe me most of them know who I am. In private they all read what I write and later act like they have never heard of me. They make funny comments and think that I am a joke, but deep down. Deep down they all know that there is a pretty big chance that I can make them look like a joke. Like a joke that is is probably going to go viral. Believe me, they don’t want me to make them go viral, and they don’t want that I make them famous. They don’t want to be a part of my highlight reel. People would either delete their Instagram and Facebook profiles, or they might block me on their social media. And on top of all of that drama. Imagine if you are to play against me and lose…

Never again will somebody with my Water Polo background and qualities go undetected for so long and then pop up out of nowhere, change the face of our game and affect the whole culture of Water Polo like I did. I am the last of the old school and the first of the new generation. Those who made fun of me and end up playing against me will lose more then just a Water Polo game. Trust me, it will be a life changing experience for all of them. Their big egos will not allow their brains to comprehend the fact that someone like me could possibly beat them. They will lose and they still won’t be able to grasp the fact. And if you still think that the title of this article was just another click-bait, then please leave the article, click on it again and try to grasp it once more. Sucker.

I hope I made myself clear.

Spoke somethings into universe.

Now lets watch them appear.

Tomo Bujas

@tomo.bujas

Düsseldorf

16.4.2020