Rhonda Abrams over at Gannett has an interesting take on baseball and business.
I like that baseball has history and promise. Strategy and sacrifice. Tradition and surprise. (Who the heck are half the players in the line-up?) Baseball is a sport of statistics.
On Opening Day, every team’s record is perfect. The whole season is ahead of them.
– Success takes time. Over a dozen teams that won pennants or division titles had lousy – really lousy – records in the middle of the season, trailing by 10 or more games (a HUGE deficit in baseball). As your business develops, you may have to make changes to your team, strategy, management, but it’s possible to overcome even long odds to reach success.
– It’s not over til it’s over. Every long-time baseball fan has a story of missing seeing their team’s remarkable come-from-behind victory because they left the stadium early. In 1990, the Dodgers were losing 11-2, then scored nine runs (9!) to beat the Phillies. Of course, you have to know when to throw in the towel on a business that’s hemorrhaging money, but often, there’s victory awaiting in the next inning.
– It’s not just “one and done.” Many sports have very short seasons or one-game playoffs. In baseball, the playoffs are always at least the best three out of five (except if there’s a tie for the wild card, but that’s like giving a runner-up an extra chance anyway). That’s much more like the reality in business – success is rarely a matter of just one customer, one deal.
– You don’t have to be perfect to be a champion. In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, with a .516 regular season record. In other words, out of 161 games, they only won five more games than they lost. Always remember that in baseball, a .300 average makes you a star. Think about that when you’re beating yourself up for not making an important sale or screwing up a project.– The big guys don’t always win. Sure, the New York Yankees, with their gazillion dollar payroll, won last year’s World Series. And sure, it’s tough to compete against the superstore across town. It takes strategy, agility and commitment – you may have to offer a different product mix, greater customer service, respond faster to market trends. But mostly, it takes confidence. You can’t win if you don’t believe you can win.
Photo by MLB.