Cal Ripken, Jr.
(Originally published in Business Fraser Valley, March, 2011)
Is your success based on hitting home runs or grinding your way around the bases? Are you Hank Aaron or Cal Ripken?
The glory goes to those who swing for the fences. We root for the big play, the Hail Mary pass, the go-for-the-gusto player. We are somehow less disappointed if a loss comes after the exhilaration of taking a daring chance. We love a good home run story.
John Furlong, CEO of Vanoc was the speaker at a luncheon I attended recently. As part of the price of admission the audience received a copy of his book, Patriot Hearts. In it, along with sharing the experience of running the 2010 Winter Games, he recounts how he came to Canada and worked his way to the top.
John inspires me because he exemplifies the power and profitability of hard work. He says he has never been the smartest person in the room or the most talented player on the field. He wins because he works so hard; he is determined that nobody will ever outwork him. He is a grinder.
I wonder where John would be today if he had been seduced by the glory of swinging for the fences rather than grinding his way to success.
Few of us consistently hit home runs but any of us might hit one out of the park once in awhile. In such cases we relish the excitement of the moment but we keep our day jobs. For some of us, we hit another and perhaps another and we begin to think we’ve been aiming our careers too low. We may go on to find a new, unexpected level of success or we may fall flat.
Hank Aaron
Chasing homers when we aren’t home run hitters leaves us unsatisfied most of the time. On those few occasional when we actually hit it out of the park, the adrenalin rush convinces us that this is what we were meant to do. So we struggle to hit another one, and struggle and struggle and struggle. Our careers are long, low valleys interrupted by an occasional high peak.
And chasing homers can tempt us to take unnecessary risks leading to unnecessary strikeouts. Think “Challenger” space shuttle disaster. NASA engineers where under pressure to deliver a launch that day because they perceived the need (and the ability) to hit as many home runs as possible to keep public and political support for NASA strong.
For those blessed with the home run gene like Babe Ruth or Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, swinging for the fences is logical. They would probably fail as grinders. For those of us with lesser talent, we can find our own high levels of success by copying John Furlong’s recipe: magnify talent with hard work and work harder than anyone else on the field.
Hard work is so rare that it is almost always a successful, sustainable competitive advantage. Home runs are welcome but not necessary.
Are you a home run king or are you a grinder? Are you sure?
