Many of us in Zambia cannot recall feeling as much joy as we felt when Zambia scored that winning goal against the highest ranked team in Africa, the Great Elephants of the Ivory Coast. When the copper bullet (chipolopolo) finally struck that fatal blow into the Goliathic elephant's heart, a sudden mixture of pride, relief and amazement overwhelmed the hearts of Zambians watching from all over the world. For those of us old enough to remember the team that perished and in whose honour the tournament was being played by the Zambia team, the moment was also a teary acceptance of final closure that we failed to find for the past twenty years. May your souls finally rest in peace, Chipolopolo 1.0.

Such great achievements are never short of deeper lessons for the human soul. I believe the biggest lesson from Zambia's historical achievement is simply the idea that great determination, great self-belief, can achieve anything. It's a lesson that was artfully displayed before us in concrete fashion for three full weeks as an underrated team kept beating much more fancied teams boasting players from top European teams (its own players are almost all from local African clubs). The team had resolved from the start of the tournament that they would win in honour of the team that died in a plane crash in Gabon in 1993 as they were trying to achieve national glory for the first time. To understand how great this perished team was, you have to recall that the team that was built to replace them managed to reach the finals of the Africa Cup in 1994. And yet most of the players in that new finalist team that lost by one goal to Nigeria could not even make it to the reserve bench of the perished team!

The captain of that perished team (the legendary Kalusha Bwalya), who was also the first and last player to be crowned African footballer of the year from Southern Africa, had luckily survived by simply taking a different late flight from Europe. As the current executive president of the Football Association of Zambia, he took this tournament very personally, and he is the one who led the young team to the site of the plane crash on the coast of Gabon to lay wreaths and dramatically absorb their inspiration.

It was this simple resolution to win at all costs, no matter who stood in their way, that led to that final momentous victory. This heroic and deeply infectious resolve also inspired the people of Zambia at home, many of whom had started their celebrations days before the match was even played. It's the first time Zambian expectations have been that high. I even spotted at least one car that was fully painted in the colours of the national flag in anticipation of the victory. In short, the self-belief of both the players and the fans was bordering on insanity, given all the reasonable odds against our young team!

But when a person believes that strongly in his ability to achieve a seemingly impossible goal in which he has sufficient skills, he will achieve it. We thank the chipolopolo boys and their passionate coach for making that lesson permanently painted on our minds as we pursue our own individual goals.