What We Can Learn About Business from Baseball

A young baseball player was at the plate waiting on his second pitch. It was late in the game and the pitcher looked fatigued. The catcher passed a sign. The pitcher nodded, took a deep breath, and then went into his windup. The batter’s dad yelled from the stands, “keep your eye on the ball” to his son.

The pitcher tossed a wild pitch. It came in fast. The batter tried to move out of the way, but it was too late. The ball smacked him in the side, which caused the batter to recoil in pain. He slumped over. An audible gasp came from the crowd in the bleachers.

The batter pulled himself together and turned towards first base. You could see the pain in the young kid’s face as he made the jog to first base, but he kept moving towards that base with a dogged determination that was enviable.

The batter did everything correctly, but just couldn’t get out of the baseball’s path. Sometimes, especially in business, it can be that way. You can do everything correctly, but still get blindsided with a wild pitch late in the game, no matter how well you keep your eye on the ball.

What do you do when you get hit with a metaphorical wild pitch? That depends on you.

Are you going to give up every time something bad happens to your business?

The decision is yours.

It takes a lot of character to brush yourself off and keep moving after something unexpected happens.

As a business owner, many things are out of your control — weather disasters, change to government policy/ regulations, a pandemic. You can plan all you want and attempt to anticipate the pitch, but you often get the pitches you get. And some of those pitches are wild. So, you just have to get to take the hit, regroup, and then head to first base.

The pain the batter felt was temporary. A batter later, he was on second base. He stole third base soon after that, then scored the go ahead run when the following batter hit a double. It worked out because the batter who got hit didn’t quit. He hadn’t expected to be hit by the baseball, even though it was a strong possibility given he was standing in the batter’s box, so it took him by surprise. Once he worked through the shock, he got back to work.

The moral of the story is this: get in the batter’s box and take your pitches. Some will come roaring straight across home plate, ready for you to knock the stuffing out of the ball, while others may hit you in the side. It doesn’t matter how you make it to home plate. It just matters that you put in the effort to get there, that you don’t quit, and that you are able to fight through the difficult times.

Business can be difficult, but those who are able to adapt to the difficult situations often do well.

Take your pitches, get on base, and score.