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You Have to Swing a Lot to Hit Home Runs!

July 17, 2000

"You remember Reggie Jackson, don't you?  The baseball player?  Man, that guy could hit home runs.  He knocked 563 balls into the seats during his twenty-one year major-league career, which is good for sixth place on the all-time homer list.

It turns out Jackson was No.1 on another all-time list.  He struck out more times than anybody - 2,597 times in all.  The No. 2 guy on that list, Willie Stargell, wasn't even close with 1,936.  Then again, Stargell only hit 475 homers, which tied him for sixteenth place on the home run roster.

Indeed, the top ten home run hitters in big-league history took about fifty-four swings for every home run they hit.  But swinging is more than just making the effort.  It also involves risking and accepting failure.  The greatest home run hitters of all time made, on average, eleven outs for every home run they hit.

In your life, how would you deal with eleven failures for every success?  Would you continue to swing for the fence or would you start declining your at bats (Hall, 1995, pp.76-77)?"

Reference:  Hall, D. (1995).  Jump start your brain.  New York: Warner books, Inc.

Batter up!

Jump Start Your Brain is available on loan from the OSU Leadership Center.  A complete listing of all the Leadership Center's resources is available on our website www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~leaders

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Created: 2009-01-02, Updated: 2009-01-12