In 1923, Babe Ruth broke the record for most home runs in a season. That same year, he also broke the record for the highest batting average. There is a third record he broke that year that most people don't know about. In 1923, Babe Ruth struck out more times than any other player in Major League
Baseball.
Think about that and let it really sink in. The same year that Babe Ruth broke the record for the most home runs in a season and also broke the record for the highest batting average, he simultaneously broke the record for striking out more than any other player in Major League Baseball.
Besides being a fun fact of sorts, I think this really serves as a great
reminder that we shouldn’t be afraid to go for what we want in our music careers and lives and risk rejection. In fact, our victories will most likely be in direct proportion to the number rejections we get. The more we go for what we want, the more times will likely be rejected and at the same time, the more times will likely succeed.
Michael Jordan expressed the same idea this way, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my
career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
So many of us are so afraid to fail and so afraid of rejection, that we fail to take the action we need to succeed, out of fear of failure. We fail to see that failure, rejection and setbacks are all simply part of the process. We have to
experience failure and rejection in order to experience the success we’re after. Failure and success go together like Peanut Butter & Jelly. Ok, maybe I’m sugar coating it a bit, but seriously they go together. They’re a package deal.
Whenever you experience rejection or setbacks, just remember Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and the countless other successful athletes, musicians and artists that all faced an immense number
of strikeouts, defeats and missed shots, but succeeded because of their willingness to fail.
Like Wayne Gretzky has famously stated, “You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take”.
