America\u2019s favorite pastime isn\u2019t great just for enjoyment and relaxation purposes; it\u2019s also the source of numerous life and business lessons. After all, some of our culture\u2019s most popular sayings (\u201cYou can\u2019t win \u2018em all,\u201d \u201cHe really hit a home run that time,\u201d and \u201cHe was out before he reached First Base,\u201d for example) come from the diamond.<\/p>\n
Filled with memorable characters and fantastic rags-to-riches stories, baseball is more than just a sport for millions of people. In this report, I\u2019ve pulled some of my favorite lessons I\u2019ve learned through this magnificent activity. Whether you\u2019ve spent hours in the dugout or in the stands, of if you don\u2019t know an RBI from HBO, you\u2019ll find a lot of great inspiration, and maybe even a smile or two.<\/p>\n
The Major League Baseball season stretches from April to October, and includes over 160 regular league games. And that doesn\u2019t include pre-season scrimmages or playoff match-ups. With each game lasting an approximate 2.5 hours, that\u2019s a lot of time on the diamond!<\/p>\n
What happens in the first inning of the first game in the pre-season has little bearing on who the pennant winner will be. The season lasts a long, long (and some say TOO long) time. By the time the season wraps up, the average batter has been in the box over 500 times. Sometimes they get a hit, but more often, they get out. But that first time up to bat doesn\u2019t set the tone for their season \u2013 unless they let it.<\/p>\n
Business is the same way. While any one \u201cpitch,\u201d customer interaction, or promotion may seem of the utmost importance \u2014 and it is, in that moment \u2014 in the overall scheme of things, it is only one piece of a larger mosaic. Yes, great players play hard every pitch, but they also know how to pace themselves and shake off a missed strike and move ahead.<\/p>\n
In your business, you need that perspective. Yes, you want to hit a home run each and every time you are at bat, and you want to make a play every time the game comes your way, but chances are you are going to flub a few easy pop-ups, and miss a few easy strikes. That is just the nature of the game.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, your perfectly crafted sales page does not convert. Sometimes, an unhappy customer remains unhappy no matter how hard you try to fix the situation. Sometimes, a great product doesn\u2019t sell well. Sometimes you can figure out why, while other times you just have to let it go and move forward, realizing that you will have hundreds of other interactions and opportunities to make your season a winning one.<\/p>\n
To put things in perspective, the best hitters in baseball typically have a batting average of around .300. That means every ten times they get up to bat, they fail to get on base seven times. And these are the best of the best! Even the venerable Babe Ruth had a lifetime batting average of only .342.<\/p>\n
On a team level, most clubs are striving for a winning season \u2014 meaning they win more than they lose. That should be your goal, too \u2014 to win more than you lose. And when you do lose \u2014 clients, accounts, mailing list subscribers \u2014 dust your cleats off and try again.<\/p>\n
Check back tomorrow for Lesson #2!<\/p>\n
To Your Success!<\/p>\n
Much Love,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
America\u2019s favorite pastime isn\u2019t great just for enjoyment and relaxation purposes; it\u2019s also the source of numerous life and business lessons. After all, some of our culture\u2019s most popular sayings (\u201cYou can\u2019t win \u2018em all,\u201d \u201cHe really hit a home run that time,\u201d and \u201cHe was out before he reached First Base,\u201d for example) come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":811,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[341,159,342,343,344,345,346,347,348,349,350,351,352,353,354],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-network","category-this-and-that","tag-baseball-season","tag-business-lessons","tag-customer-interaction","tag-dugout","tag-favorite-pastime","tag-first-game","tag-hbo","tag-league-games","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-memorable-characters","tag-one-america","tag-pennant","tag-rags-to-riches","tag-rags-to-riches-stories","tag-relaxation-purposes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/jenniferlee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}