I came across this quote recently by Warren Spahn, a former MLB player (pitcher).
Twenty games is the magic figure for pitchers – .300 is the magic figures for batters. It pays off in salary and reputation – Warren Spahn
Twenty wins by a pitcher is a phenomenal season, not an average season. Today pitchers start less than in prior years but those are very good seasons. Hitting .300 (hitting the ball three out of ten times and getting on base) over the course of a career would get a batter into the Hall of Fame and, based on Warren’s comment, presumably quite rich.
Lets translate the above quote into business:
(1) The comments above are RESULTS-ORIENTED. He isn’t saying “throwing 2000 pitches” or “swinging at 2000 pitches.” He is commenting on the END RESULT, the end outcome that teams care about.
(2) The team owners know that winning games or hitting enough baseballs will, over time, help them attain division titles and championships. Team owners want championships and pay the salaries of the players.
(3) Great results are what matter in this case, not average results. Most importantly, the “great” results have to be in the eye of the person who is paying for the service.
I thought about this the other day when I was re-reading a short parable called Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. While reading the book I had some thoughts of previous videos / books read pop into my head.
- Below is a video I watched about a year ago where Seth Godin talked about being remarkable. In his book, Purple Cow, Seth describes how a product or service being “remarkable” makes it worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible in today’s age, where consumers are inundated with marketers trying to get their attention. You have to be remarkable to stand out from the crowd. With social media being “word-of-mouth marketing on steroids,” as a few marketers have claimed, it REALLY makes sense to have a remarkable business, service, product, brand image (product or personally / professionally).
- I recall similar comments made by John Maxwell in “Put Your Dream To The Test” where John commented, “No one cares about average. No one wants an average table, at an average restaurant, served by an average waiter.”
So, given the above comments, I am doing some personal soul-searching myself and I’d encourage you to do so as well.
What would it take for you or me to be a remarkable:
- Husband / Wife
- Citizen / Community Member
- Business Owner / Employee
- Website Owner / Blogger
I guess the next questions to ask are?
- Am I currently remarkable?
- Do I need to be remarkable to this person / constituency?
- If I am not remarkable am I willing to make some of the sacrifices to become remarkable?
I ask the above questions because, from what I’ve encountered in life, success doesn’t happen overnight and remarkable doesn’t happen quickly. Becoming remarkable, in any endeavor, typically is dreamed by many but few are willing to make the sacrifice required to be remarkable. As a former Supreme Justice once said:
Nothing is so commonplace as to wish to be remarkable – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr
If you choose to become remarkable I’d highly suggest buying Purple Cow or Raving Fans. They provide some good roadmaps on what it takes to get there. Once you get there, be prepared to fight for it. As Fast Company said in a book review of Seth’s book:
If you’re remarkable, then it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise-ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
To YOUR success,
Dan Ross
