This past weekend the Toronto Blue Jays had a reunion weekend celebrating the two World Series wins in 1992 and 1993. In the weeks leading up to the weekend, Joe Carter gave a ton of interviews promoting the event.
Any Blue Jays fan remembers Carter leaping with joy after he caught the final out to win the World Series in 1992. And there are few moments more exciting in Canadian sports history than Carter’s walk-off home run to win it all in 1993.
What fascinated me about the interviews Carter gave was his discussions about the mindset they had going into the 1992 season. When the Blue Jays arrived at spring training in 1992 they weren’t wondering if they could make it to the post season. They didn’t hope they could make it to the World Series. They went into it with a winning attitude – we can do it, we will do it.
Now there is a long time and a lot of games between the first day of spring training and the final out of the World Series. Nobody can win every game or catch every ball. During the course of a season, there are going to be innings or games or even weeks where you struggle.
And when you struggle, you start to have doubts. But Carter talked about how whenever one of them had those moments of doubt, they’d remind each other that they were going to win it all.
And this “we can do it” stuff wasn’t just wishful thinking. These were men who had put a lot of years into honing their craft. They worked hard in spring training, they gave it all on the field. They didn’t sit around wishing they’d win the World Series; they worked hard to make it happen.
Running a small business is sort of like trying to win the World Series. If you go into it wondering if you’ll succeed it’s a lot harder to get through the rough patches. And just like any ball player is going to have games where he just can’t seem to hit the ball, small businesses will go through rough patches too.
The difference between success and failure in running a business often comes down to mindset – having confidence that you will succeed and the determination to do whatever it takes to make the success possible. Too many business owners pack it in too soon because they don’t have that confidence. Or worse, they spend too much time worrying about whether they’re good enough that they don’t do the things that will make them truly successful.
But if you believe in yourself, have a plan and do the work it takes to achieve your goals, plus have a support system that will help you through the bad times, you and your business will be a success.
There is however one big difference between running a small business and baseball. In baseball, only one team can win the World Series. In business, you don’t have to fail in order for me to win. We can all win.
Andrea J. Stenberg
