[Dear Reader: What folows is, more or less, a transcription of the video. Thank you, Mark]
Has life ever thrown you a curveball? For example, you have high hopes about a new job. The HR director says, “You’re going to love working here!” But your new boss turns out to be a cantankerous curmudgeon. Or have you ever fallen in love and gotten married, only to discover that your spouse is an axe murderer? It happens. Well, what if there was a way to anticipate when life was going to throw you a curveball, so that you had time to prepare for it? Then you could avoid a great many of life’s aggravations and upsets.
Know Thyself: In Baseball as in Life
Ah, there is a way. And you can you learn the amazing secret from a book called, “The Science of Hitting.” Yes, a baseball player — one of the greatest, the last man to bat over 400 —wrote it. He can teach you to anticipate whatever life throws at you: a fastball, a curve ball, a slider, and so on. Who, then, wrote “The Science of Hitting?” If you guessed Ted Williams, you were right. According to Mr. Williams, to be a great baseball player, you need to know who you are. Here is what he writes,
“Most hitting faults [come] from a lack of self-knowledge. You the hitter are the greatest variable in the game, because to know yourself takes dedication.”
Why dedication? It takes a lot of time and effort to understand oneself. Socrates spent his entire life seeking self-knowledge. If anything, you need to know your strengths and weaknesses. There’s a beer commercial in which the world’s most interesting man says, “The secret of success is to find out what you’re bad at and don’t do it.” Anyway, an ounce of self-knowledge can save you from a ton of misery.
The Art of Anticipation
In addition to acquiring self-knowledge, you must learn the art of anticipation. Here is what Ted Williams writes and I’m paraphrasing a bit here,
“If you observe, you can pick up the pitcher’s curveball the moment he throws it. The way he really has to snap it off to get it going.”
You must, therefore, discern the pitcher’s pattern. Therefore, it’s not enough to know yourself. If you wish to be successful as a business leader, or in any profession or even to be a successful parent, you must seek to understand those who are throwing pitches at you. In other words, know thy customers, know thy employees, know thy competitors, and so on. And, as Ted Williams contends, to understand them, you must grasp their patterns, their modus operandi, the particular spin they put on everything they do.
Finally folks, in baseball as in life, everyone needs a coach. Below are links to some of my websites. Perhaps I can help you — in your career, in your business and in your life. Best of luck and when the opportunity arrives, may you hit it out of the park!
Mark Dillof
Dr. Mark Dillof is president of Sherlock & Zen, LLC, Business Consulting. In addition to extensive business experience — including having worked as a management consultant, stockbroker and executive coach — he taught philosophy and psychology for many years, wrote several books, has had a private practice as a consulting philosopher, and has entertained as a professional magician, among other things.