The Sacrifice Fly

Had an interesting meeting with Greg on Friday. One of those strategy meetings where you discuss big ideas and get all charged.

In the midst of my rambling we started talking about baseball. Specifically how failure is revered in baseball. How earning an out can be just as celebrated as a home run. But according to the rules you are not supposed to get out. The point is to hit the ball and get on base. But at times that can be the worst thing you can do.

This all came from watching the World Series last week and a dude from Detroit was on second base and the next batter hit a sac fly that moved the runner to third. When the cat who hit the sac fly went back to the clubhouse he was high fived like Barry after a dinger. (for non baseball fans or people who hate sports analogies. The sacrifice fly put the runner on 2nd in better scoring position in a 2 run game. They chose to take the out in order to increase the odds of the runner on base scoring.)

That triggered one of my tirades about how baseball was wack because failure was encouraged. But after talking to a real baseball fan, Greg, I got a new perspective.

Sometimes hitting the metaphorical home run in baseball, football, basketball or business is the last thing you want to do. Don't tell your pitcher to swing away because that's not what he's built for. Have him bunt and get on base so when your big hitter gets up he can hot a 2 run shot instead of a glory run just for himself. That's better for the team.

In football, don't score that td and give Peyton Manning 2 minutes on the clock. Sacrifice the points and kick a field goal with 10 seconds left. The margin of victory may be smaller and stats may not be as impressive but it assures a win for the team.

Don't shoot the wide open 3 with 20 seconds on the clock. Sometimes the drive and foul as the shot clock winds down is better even if you miss one free throw.

That hit record out the box is sometimes not as good as the regional hat that escalates into a platinum album 5 years later.
Ask Cisqo if he wants to take the Thong Song back. That song was probably the best and worst thing he ever did for his career. A hit can raise expectations and invite criticism prematurely. Very few can build or repeat that smash record. Outkast, Jay, 50, Tribe. And many have reached initial heights and spent the rest of their career trying to return. Vanilla Ice, Skee-Lo (remember him), MC Shan, Hammer (in a sense), Pharcyde (even though I think they have made many songs better than ‘Passing Me By’ they have never had a hit like that. But then again they probably don’t care. Bad example), Young MC and on and on.

Trying to build three businesses at once even if you have the funding may not be as beneficial as taking a 1/4 of the funding and building one business. Trying to build all three businesses will spread you too thin and cause them all to fail.

Sacrifice and perceived failure may be the best ally you have.
Take the losses when they benefit the greater good.