My Business is Optimized for Singles Instead of Home Runs
I’m going to completely torture this baseball metaphor.
As an entrepreneur, I don’t think I’m meant to hit home runs. I don’t mean just that the luck hasn’t struck.
It’s more that I don’t feel particularly connected to the mainstream and where they are headed, am unreasonable about how I think the world should work in a way that makes me reject what’s often a good business decision, don’t love scalable acts like creating a business that can scale on top of cookie-cutter jobs or on top of advertising or virality.
Sure, maybe I’ll get lucky, and I’ll get to that. But I decided to stop going up to the plate trying to hit a home run.
When I had a business with venture capital, I thought I was Barry Bonds. But now that I don’t, I realize I’m Tony Gwynn.
Tony Gwynn was what baseball calls a contact hitter. He just wanted to get the ball in play for a hit. He led the league in hits seven times. And, this is key, those hits turned into runs and he five times was one of the league leaders in runs scored.
Now I go up to the plate trying to hit a single. If I have a runner on base, I try to move them over. I think if I keep hitting singles I might move some of those runners across the plate to…
