Working Solo Minute: Base Hits vs. Home Runs

In honor of the start of baseball season here in the U.S., I've dug into the Working Solo archives to reprint an article that was a reader favorite when it was originally published. Even if you're not a baseball fan, there's a valuable business lesson here. Enjoy!

Baseball season has begun, which brings to mind metaphors for business success. We've all heard the stories of "Don't give up -- think of the baseball players who made the Hall of Fame and who struck out 7 out of 10 times."

But lately I've been thinking about home runs vs. base hits. Most soloists have experienced the elation that comes from a big deal finally going through -- quickly followed by the disappointing sense of "Is that all there is?" This happens because as entrepreneurs our sights are always on the next big thing, and we often have moved on to more ambitious goals by the time an achievement is realized.

The disappointment also comes, sometimes, because our goals are not realized to the full extent we had anticipated. Instead of a home run, we get a base hit.

Now for those of you not up on baseball strategies, sometimes it pays to get base hits. Pop -- you get a runner on first. Pop -- you get another base hit and a new runner on first, and the original runner advances to second base. Soon you have a string of base hits and runners on all three bases. Then you come up to the plate and hit a strong drive that goes out of the park, and it's a home run. But because you've been loading up those bases with runners from earlier hits, you score not just one run from the outta-the-park hit, but four.

This approach has changed my thinking over the last few weeks about business strategy. We've all heard the maxims that it's the little things that add up, and that consistency pays off. But now, think about your solo business efforts and rank them with baseball in mind. Was that achievement a double (and your imaginary runner is now on second base)? Was it almost a home run, but your runner ended up safely at third? Does it pay to attempt a home run and risk an out, or is a more conservative strategy of aiming for a single a better choice?

Doing this keeps your efforts in perspective and makes you realize that even though you have no immediate points on the scoreboard, you're lining everything up to make it happen. Not everything we attempt will be a home run. But sometimes base hits can be much more valuable in the long term.

-- Terri Lonier
Founder, WorkingSolo.com

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