It’s Opening Day of the 2019 baseball season. With that, all teams are tied for the pennant race. Everyone’s got hopes. And I think there’s a lesson here for everyone engaged in a job search as well.
One way to look at baseball is as an exercise in perseverance. A great player might have a .300 batting average. Only 20 players in the history of major league baseball have achieved a .400 batting average for a season–the most recent was Ted Williams, in 1941. A .400 batting average is generally considered unattainable in the modern era.
What this means is that the greatest players succeed less than 40% of the time when they go to bat. Fail 7 of 10 times–a .300 average–and you’re a great hitter. Fail 6 of 10 times, you’re a baseball legend and the greatest hitter in 78 years.
Baseball is hard. You take your swings, you miss, you strike out, you ground out, you fly out.
You fail until you win.
Job searching is hard. You apply to a promising opening and hear nothing. You get an interview and don’t get called back. You get to a second or third interview and learn that they’ve decided to go with an internal candidate. Or they’ve decided not to fill the position after all.
Or any number of other failure points, only some of which you can control.
If you’re looking for a job, you will fail. Repeatedly. And that’s fine. It’s part of the game. It means you’re in the game.
What’s not OK is letting fear of failure keep you from stepping up to the plate every chance you get.
Fail until you win.