Life's Batting Average
Baseball's greatest hitter grew up near my neighborh
ood in San Diego. When Ted Williams slugged for the Boston Red Sox, my father and I kept a record of his daily batting average. And when I played Little League ball, my dad told me not to worry about striking out. In Williams's finest year, dad reminded me, the champion failed at the plate about 60 percent of the time.
Football's greatest quarterba
cks complete only six out of ten passes. The best basketbal
l players make only half their shots. Even with satellite mapping and expert geologist
s, leading oil companies make strikes in only one out of ten wells. Actors and actresses auditioni
ng for roles are turned down twenty-nine in thirty times. And stock market winners make money on only two out of five of their investmen
ts.
Since failure is a given in life, success takes more than leadershi
p beliefs and solid behaviora
l patterns. It also takes an appropria
te response to the inevitabl
e, including an effective combinati
on of risk-taking and persevera
nce. I meet many individua
ls who are seeking security at all costs, and avoiding risk whenever and wherever possible. Knowing that certain changes would make success much more likely for them, they neverthel
ess take the path of least resistanc
e: no change. For the temporary, often illusory comfort of staying as they are, they pay the terrible price of a life not truly lived.
Parable of the Cautious Man
There was a very cautious man,
Who never laughed or cried.
He never risked, he never lost,
He never won nor tried.
And when he one day passed away,
His insurance was denied,
For since he never really lived,
They claimed he never died.
In other words, missed opportuni
ties are the curse of potential
. Just after the Great Depressio
n, Americans, perhaps understan
dably at the time, took many steps intended to minimize risk. The governmen
t guarantee
d much of our savings. Citizens bought billions of dollars worth of insurance
. We sought lifetime employmen
t and our unions fought for guarantee
d annual cost-of-living increases to protect us from inflation
. This security-blanket mentality has continued in recent decades as executive
s awarded themselve
s giant golden parachute
s in case a merger or takeover took their plum jobs.
These measures had many benefits, but the drawbacks have also been heavy, even if less obvious. In our eagerness to avoid risk, we forgot its positive aspects. Many of us continue to overlook the fact that progress comes only when chances are taken. And the security we sought and continue to seek often produces boredom, mediocrit
y, apathy and reduced opportuni
ty.
We still hear much about security, especiall
y from federal and state politicia
ns. But total security is a myth except, perhaps, for those six feet undergrou
nd in the cemetery. We may indeed ask our governmen
t for guarantee
d benefits. But we must be aware that when a structure starts with a floor, walls and ceilings will follow. And herein lies a paradoxic
al proverb:
You must risk in order to gain security, but you must never seek security.
When security becomes a major goal in life – when fulfillme
nt and joy are reduced to merely holding on, sustainin
g the status quo – the risk remains heavy. It is then a risk of losing the prospects of real advanceme
nt, of not being able to ride the wave of change today and tomorrow. Had the founders of Yahoo, Amazon.co
m and America Online been concerned with immediate profits and return on investmen
t, we would not be enjoying those Internet services today, each of which has a greater market capitaliz
ation than IBM or General Motors.
-- Denis Waitley
max@work - caring, sharing and mentoring
.htm" target="_blank">http://www.goodnewsforall.com/Webmaster's_Profile .htm
