Inspiring words shared from Jesse Cole about the motivating words his dad used to share at Jesse’s little league games. Fast forward to now, Jesse Cole and team have been swinging for the fences ever since.
I found this story and many others so impactful in Jesse’s latest book Fan’s First, and some nuggets of wisdom I took from his book.
Let’s first start with breaking down the “make adjustments not excuses” words of wisdom. So often in life we settle into an all or nothing mentality and hold our creativity back in fear of judgment because it’s not perfect yet. These inspiring words to make adjustments not excuses, means that you look at every opportunity as an opportunity to learn, grow, and get better at your craft.
Next, let’s take a look at the second part of the quote, “swing hard incase you hit it”. This quote originated from Babe Ruth’s famous words, “Swing hard in case you hit the ball”, which simply means that no matter how many times you miss, you still keep putting yourself out there.
Pete Rose holds the Major League record for most career hits, with 4,256 and that is what people will always remember him for, not how many times that he swung and missed.
Pete Rose struck out 1,143 times out of 14,053 lifetime at bat, that is nearly 2,000 more at bats than any other player. So yes Pete Rose was one of the best hitters of all time, but he also stepped up to the plate more, swung more and failed more. This story shared by Jesse really hit home (you see what I did there?) with me of how important it is to not play it small, and to swing hard for the fences just in case you hit it!
We can apply this mind set to our professional and personal lives as well.
I started thinking about my early days in my leasing career and how I promised myself that I would always, always ask for the sale when I was touring prospective residents. I have been in the industry for over 26 years and I see leasing folks missing this opportunity and holding themselves back from asking the question because they are afraid of rejection or view a “no” as a failure.
One day I was working onsite at a mid size apartment community as a leasing professional and I was meeting with a prospective client. I am a social person by nature and my style was to build a rapport through conversation and it had worked well for me, prospects found my jokes funny and all was good for me up to that point. A man quickly walked into our leasing office, I stood to greet him and he swiftly walked past me and sat at my desk. He seemed in a rush and almost immediately started looking at his watch drumming his fingers and seemed instantly irritated at my attempts to “socialize”.
I made it about 30 seconds through the brochure demonstration when the man slammed his drivers license down on the table and said, “enough chit chat, take me to a model or something I can look at today”. Trying to adjust to my customer, I swiftly grabbed my model keys and asked him to join me in our walk across the parking lot to our model.
The tour path is usually where I can highlight the community, the staff and all things awesome about our property, but this time was different. I found myself running behind the man trying to keep up while still also giving him guidance as to where we were heading. He had to wait for me to get to the door with keys, but once I unlocked each door he pushed past me and swiftly walked through the apartment.
I felt so defeated and angry and I just wanted the tour to be over and for this man to be gone and I thought to myself, “ this guy hates me, he isn’t going to rent with us and I just don’t think I can take hearing “no” at this point.”
When the man was done looking at the model, I was going to open the apartment door and head back to the office to end this horrible interaction, but I took a deep breath and remembered my commitment I made to myself many years ago and this guy wasn’t going to make me break my promise to myself. I turned to the man and said, “Would you like to fill out an application?” with the best smile I could muster.
Guess what he said? “YES!”To my surprise he rented the apartment and after a few months of living in the community, the angry man I toured and leased to, became one of my biggest fans.
Turns out the man was going through the worst year of his life and he was hurting, badly. He told me once a couple of months after moving in that he was in a dark place and that me inviting him to apply was a completely different response than he had gotten elsewhere and that is why he rented with us. Getting housing secured took a gigantic weight off of his shoulders and he was eventually able to start putting his life back together and smile again.
Remember, kindness can go a long way even when others are not so kind—hurt people hurt people. Look at these points of friction as opportunities to make adjustments not excuses and swing hard in case you hit it!
You can grab Jesse Cole’s book, Fans First here : https://a.co/d/6OCT2dW
