Major League Mindset

This week we are featuring David Gonzalez as a guest author for the blog. David is a student of the mindset game and a client of JP Bonifas Coaching. In his current role, David sells enterprise software solutions to Fortune500 companies where he consults C-Suite executives on digital transformation initiatives. He attributes much of his professional success to the mindset developed throughout his career as a high school wrestler. I love Dave’s creativity and writing style. This blog post started as a text message thread and I encouraged Dave to develop it into an article. Dave has a way with words and I believe when he finds his rhythm and consistency he will be one of the top follows on substack. Follow him now if you want to be early to his insights and creative process! Enjoy.

Back when you played little league ball, what did coaches tell you when you had a 3-0 count

(three balls, no strikes)?

Most of them said, “Don’t swing! Take all the way and make him throw a strike.”

It made sense even then because humans know a safe bet when we see one. If the pitcher

misses, you get a free pass to first. He throws a strike — you still have two chances.

The same 3-0 strategy prevailed, even at the major league level.

It became so obvious that pitchers recognized they could throw easy strikes without much risk.

In 2019 MLB pitchers were 21.2% more likely to throw a fastball over the heart of the plate on a

3-0 count than a 3-1 count. In other words, batters are more likely to get a floater right down

Broadway on 3-0 than any other count. Yet conventional baseball wisdom passed down from

generation to generation would tell them the same thing: “Don’t swing. Take all the way.”

Wait a minute… aren’t floaters right down Broadway the easiest to launch into the lithosphere?

Of course they are! MLB hitters collect extra-base hits 13% of the time they swing on 3-0

pitches compared to 4.7% of all generated swings.

Talk about a high-upside, low-risk brisket hiding in plain sight –– an easy change in mindset that

produces wildly better outcomes.

How often do you see similar scenarios play out in daily life? Scenarios where you have your

opponent against the ropes and instead of throwing a possible knockout punch, you bide your

time, hoping they make a mistake that puts you in only a slightly better position to win?

Maybe you’re wrestling freestyle. You’re owning the center and slowly crowding your opponent

out of bounds.

Your coach hollers, “stay low, keep crowding, get your ONE!”

Get 1? In the perfect moment to go for two or more? That’s conventional wisdom.

Strategic wisdom says, “Keep hollerin’ coach because I want him to think I’m going for one. But

we both know I’m going for more ‘cause there might not be a better time than now.”

Want an example from the business realm? I’ll give you one from my experience selling to

executives at Fortune500 companies.

Your phone lights up. It’s a prospect you’ve been hunting for months. You answer the phone

and they’re ready to buy NOW. By the end of the conversation, they’re asking for a contract to

pass along to legal.

Conventional wisdom would have you send them the contract with your standard pricing and

close the deal on the spot.

Strategic wisdom whispers, “You’re looking at a 3-0 count here. Sure, there’s a small deal on

the table, but dare to look for a bigger one…especially if you get a good pitch.”

So you resist the irresistible and withhold the safer, smaller deal –– for the time being –– and

ask them to give you a better description of what’s driving their decision and what they’re hoping

to achieve. How they respond may be the difference between adding another zero to the total

contract value.

Or it could reveal the opposite –– that the deal on the table is the best you’re going to get.

The point is not that you always swing.

It’s that you’re always prepared to swing, especially when the odds are in your favor.

And that, my friends, is how we win in baseball and in life.