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Phil's Past Episodes Episode 17: Wait For Your Pitch This past weekend, I had the great fortune of attending a Major League Baseball game. Now, before you start thinking to yourself that Phil has lost it completely, there is a story behind the tickets, and, believe it or not, there is a great deal of business sense to be learned from watching baseball. First off, the story behind the tickets. I'll spare you the minute details, and summarize it in one word: FREE. We're not talking the cheap upper deck seats. We're not talking about the seats way out in the middle of nowhere. We're talking about seats right behind home base. Really.  I'll share the steps behind the free tickets a little later on. For now, let's look at ten business lessons you can learn from baseball. Lesson #1. Things get thrown your way, fast. If you blink, you miss them. There's an obvious corolation in the word "pitch". If it be a baseball, or an idea, it's coming at you fast. Over 90 miles an hour in most cases. As baseball players train themselves to watch the pitch, you so must train yourself to see the inner workings of any sales pitch thrown your way. As the batter does in baseball, you need to be able to read the pitch - from the stance of the pitcher, speed and trajectory of the ball, to where the catcher has position themselves. Once you as a business person can read a pitch, you are able to make a logical decision, and not an emotional one. Lesson #2. Not all things that come your way are good. I didn't count the amount of balls, wild pitches, or foul balls during the game. I probably should have. Needless to say, not every pitch was a strike, and not every pitch was swung at by the batter. Because the batter watched the pitch, they were able to recognize which pitch they should attempt to swing at. When they got a decent one, they swung. When they didn't get a decent pitch, they just let the ball pass them by, and waited for the next pitch. If you've ever been to any seminar for MLM or marketing, it's much like that. You stand there, people pitch to you, and you choose if you want to swing at that ball, or just let it fly by. Just like in baseball, you'll let a perfect pitch go right by you from time to time if we're not paying close enough attention. Lesson #3. You can't wait forever. I don't recall a single player in the game I attended just standing there as the balls when speeding by for strikes. As I remember it, there were less than 10 strike-outs by the home team. The players swung at the pitches. Some hits were grounders, some were pop flys, some hit the rafters at the top of the dome, and some went foul. If the player would have just stood there and done nothing, they would soon be sitting back in the dug out, not factoring into the game. Lesson #4. You can't steal first base. There's fundamentally only one way to score a run in baseball. Get on 1st base. The only ways to get on first base are by hitting the ball, or being awarded a walk by the umpire. You can't steal it. You can't take off running in a mad dash for first base. If you want to be in the game, you've got to play the game. You've got to swing at that pitch coming your way, and hope for the best. Then, once you hit the ball, you need to take off running as fast as you can for first base - or further, depending on where the ball went. In business, you can't just get in the game without having swung at a few pitches. It's as much a part of business as it is baseball. Lesson #5. Don't wait for opportunity, make it happen. Watching runners steal bases is one of my favorite things in the game. It requires the player to be completely in tune to what is happening in the game. They have to be in rhythm with the opposing pitcher, and their own team mate at bat. They have to take a chance. They may or may not get that stolen base when they take off running for it -- but they're out there, none the less. You have to be totally in tune with your business. You have to know the ins and outs. The ebbs and flows, the highs and lows. You have to have your hand on the pulse of your business. And then, just as in baseball, you have to make things happen. If you sit around and just wait for things to happen... well, you might end up slowly advancing around the bases... you might get a homerun... but time being of the essence in games and in business, you have to make things happen. Lesson #6. When you play hard, you get dirty. It's nice to watch the players take the field in their clean uniforms. They all look so prim and proper and spiffy. By the end of the game, the only people left with a clean uniform are the managers, the people on the injured list, and the people who didn't give it their all. You're going to get dirty. That's part of the game. It's part of business too. When you work your hardest, you get dirty. Lesson #7. Don't get blinded by the bright lights. Watch an outfielder when there is a pop fly. The look up, but they shade their eyes. Even on an indoor stadium. There's still bright lights up there. Even if there aren't, players are in the habit of shielding their eyes to look for the ball. They have to pick it out of the sky, or from against a ceiling - not an easy task. They have to remain focused on the one thing, without any other distractions coming into play. How true is that statement in business. You have to remain focused on your goal. You can not let the bight lights or anything else distract you from that goal. You have to wave off anyone trying to get in your way, too. Just let them know, "Hey, I'm concentrating on the pop fly, and can't pay attention to anything else right now"... When you make the play, they'll be congratulating you for your efforts. Lesson #8. A sacrifice you make may benefit the greater good. A player is standing on 3rd base. The batter looks at the coach. The coach tells him to hit a grounder into right. The batter knows when he does this, the forced out at first base will be the logical play the opposing team makes. They'll then try to pitch the ball to home, but by then, his team mate on 3rd base will have scored. The batter knows if he does he job, he is out. He also knows if he does his job, his team scores a run. He breathes deep, and hits the grounder into right field. It's all about the "big picture" in business. When you're able to see it, sometimes a late night, or a missed party, or time away from your loved ones is a necessary sacrifice. The rewards from the sacrifice outweigh the event you missed. Now, please keep in mind that there are some things in life that aren't worth sacrificing. It's a personal decision you must make on a daily basis. However, not going to the movies with a friend, versus missing your kids birthday party .... the decisions are sometimes very easy to make. Lesson #9. Wrong or right, the umpire is always right. Several times in the game, people were angry with a decision the Umpire made. It happens. They're human. But, unlike most any other human, in the game, what they say goes. They make the decision, and, right or wrong, they're going to stick to it. If you argue too long about it, you're likely to be thrown out of the game. In business, the old addage about, "the customer is always right" comes to mind. I had a business owner tell me that the saying has changed to, "The customer is always right 50% of the time, unless they owe me money". My reply to him was a simple one - "Why do they owe you money?". Level of service is very important. Remember, you want customers for life. Not for the transaction. Lesson #10. Communication is your lifeline. How many other games are there where two coaches are allowed to be on the field with the team at the same time? I think it's great to watch them using all their hand signals. I have no clue what they mean, but they're fun to watch. The players know exactly what they mean. It's all about communication on the field. When the ball is in play, the runner has to concentrate on rounding the bases, not where the ball is. They have to look at the coach for the signal to keep running or to stop on the base. The batter has to know how the coach wants them to hit the ball. The other team mates have to know what their batter is about to do... Communication is key. In business, it's hard not to stress the importance of communication. If your business colleagues do not know what you're doing, chances are they think you're doing nothing. You have to be in almost constant communication with your coworkers. Even if you're just telling them you're going to be unavailable for the next three hours -- you still need to communicate that to them. Your customers deserve an even greater level of communication. They must know exactly what is going on. They should know everything it is that you're doing, what step of the process you're on, and when you'll be completed with whatever it is you're doing. Earlier I told you that I would be sharing a little more detail about the tickets, and what I think is a key lesson to be learned. Many of you may know my business associate, "Mr. X". Mr. X is a sportsfan. He was looking on information for season tickets on this teams website. He ended up with a broken link. So, he notified the team's webmaster about it. A few weeks later, he checked again, same thing. The error had not been fixed. Mr. X emailed them again, and told them how they were wasting his time, and that they should at least give him some tickets to a game for the time he had lost. Indeed, the team responded to his email in a positive manner. Not only was he given 5 tickets to the game, he was given what are quite possibly the best seats in the house. Not only that, but we were taken on a tour of the "club seats", and even ended up in the tunnel leading to the field.  Now for the lesson learned. This lesson wasn't only reinforced by the tickets, but by something my 7 year old son did during the game. As you know, we had great seats behind home plate. After the first big foul ball headed into the stands, my son asked if there was a chance that a ball would end up flying our way. Our proximity to home plate pretty much ruled that out as a possibility. As the game continued, my son watched. He watched the pitcher throw the ball to the catcher, the catcher hand it to the umpire, the umpire look at it, and then toss it to the bat boy, who then put it in a bucket. He then told me he wanted a game ball, and wanted to know if he could go ask the bat boy for one. The next pitch, when the ball ended up being handed to the umpire for review, my son went down to the wall around the field. He leaned over, and as the bat boy received the ball from the umpire, my son asked for the ball. And, guess what.... he got it. The same thing happened with the tickets. The big lesson is easy: You don't get what you don't ask for. We didn't have tickets to the game before Mr. X asked for them, so there was nothing to lose. My son didn't have a game ball before he asked for one, so there was nothing to lose. What is it that you want? Go forth and ask for it. The worst that can happen is you'll end up exactly as you are right now. For MLMEruption.com this is Phil Foster - The Trusted Voice Of MLM |
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