The baseball hall of fame inducted the class of 2008 the other week. Heading the list was Richard “Goose” Gossage a long-time nemesis when I was a Kansas City Royals fan in my youth. Watching Costas Live on HBO, an interesting conversation took place on the opinions and thoughts on what signifies a Hall of Famer and what doesn’t. There was plenty of lively debate that included Pete Rose live in discussion along with the debate of those that may have used performance enhancing drugs. During the discussion, the one comment that truly captured my attention was by Dave Winfield. He stated that the great thing about the game of baseball is that it allows you to learn from your failures. He said that someone like himself failed to get a hit 70% of the time and is considered Hall of Fame status with his 30% success rate (.300 batting average).
After listening to the dialogue on America’s Pastime being a learning foundation from failure, I also heard a list of other successful people and their failures before their success:
* John Grisham was turned down 28 times before publishing his first novel
* Thomas Edison had over 2,000 inventions before discovering the one he is best known for today
* Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team
* Marilyn Monroe was told that she should consider secretarial work instead of acting
* Elvis Presley was fired after one performance, and…
* Getting back to today’s topic of baseball, Hermann “Babe” Ruth holds the all-time strikeout record.
Legend has it that the Babe said “I’d rather make a BOLD move and miss; than hit singles every time.” Of course, the Babe held the home run record for many years and is considered one of baseball’s all-time greats.
As a leader in your business, are you allowing your employees to make bold moves (hit home runs) and occasionally miss (strikeout) these days or are you only playing for singles? Our belief is that the economy can be a great excuse these days for leaders and employees to begin playing not to lose versus playing to win.
