Crippled CEO Blog #112:
What do you think of when you think of Babe Ruth?
I’m not a baseball fan, or really a fan of any team sport, but I know Babe Ruth as one of the greatest of all time, especially for his ability to hit home runs. I know that his home run record sat undisputed for a long, long time.
But unless you’re a baseball fan, you might not know that Babe Ruth also held the record for striking out for almost 3 decades. He had a career total 1,330 strikeouts.
And the reason is simple: if you are swinging for the fences, you’re going to strike out. Because that’s what happens when you take big risks.
But nobody remembers the strikeouts. Despite this shameful badge of being the King of Strikeouts for decades, that’s not his legacy. We remember the wins. We remember the home runs.
This goes for you and me, as well. I might be wrong, but I am pretty sure that people don’t think of me first as a high school dropout, or a college dropout, or identify me with the food delivery service I half started (long before Uber) and never got going, or the web design company I let die, or the thriving e-commerce company I killed. I’m pretty sure that people connect me with my victories, not my losses.
And that’s important to realize. Because if you’re going to hit home runs, you are also going to strike out a lot. But if you’re afraid of striking out, home runs aren’t in your future.
If swinging for the fences means more strikes, I say bring on the strikeouts. No one will remember them anyways once you hit that home run.
(Do you know who always enjoys playing with my balls and bat? You’re right. It’s your mom. She also gets a text from me every Sunday with a link to the latest blog post. Why haven’t you done this yet? It’s so easy. Send a text to 561-726-1567 with the word CRIP as the message to get a link to the blog as soon as it’s up.)
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