Playing the long game and winning big: Tim Cook and Lionel Messi step down after successful careers

Tim Cook and Lionel Messi share much more than the timing of stepping down from their incredibly successful careers in the corporate boardroom and the football field. They had large shoes to fill as successors to Steve Jobs and Diego Maradona, and both moved well beyond expectations to take their organisations to unprecedented heights.

Apple is a $4.5 tn behemoth, and Argentina leads the world in overall trophy count. This has to do, in no small measure, with Cook's mastery of technology, globalised production and the consumer ecosystem. Messi acquired similar command over a sport, internationalising the game and the culture of football. There is remarkable similarity in how they went about their respective jobs.

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Cook took a hardware company and spun it into a services business that no longer relies on just iPhone sales. Along the way, he introduced new hardware categories like watches and earbuds that expanded the wearable technology market. And he made it a cultural phenomenon while negotiating with countries to expand reach and production capabilities.

Cook made the job of creating products, building global supply chains and reengineering technology revenue streams appear deceptively easy. Each of these constitutes several business revolutions in themselves.

Read more: Lionel Messi retires from Argentina National Team, bids goodbye to international football

Messi brought spatial awareness and playmaking into European club football, and changed the way the game is now played across the world. He broadened the reach of football by his stint with American club Inter Miami and by capping his career at the Fifa World Cup played on the continent.

All the while that Messi played football outside his country, he gave the Argentine national side its biggest trophy haul and notched up formidable personal statistics.

Off the field, Messi's contribution to the culture of the sport has made football a truly global phenomenon, which Apple has tapped into. Cook and Messi share a personality trait of carrying their extraordinary success with humility that adds a sheen to their legacies.