Some of my fondest memories from when my son was a young boy go back to his baseball career. I remember sitting in the summer heat of New Orleans at 95°F and 90% humidity without shade and enjoying the process, and missing the dog days of summer when the season ended. I know so many parents and young boys who have the same feelings about baseball. There is no other sport in the United States that garners so much attention during regular-season games, and so much sadness when it is gone.
I’d like to relate a few stories that made me, as an adult, realize the importance of sports, and particularly baseball, as a metaphor for life.
In baseball, as in life, sometimes you get some bad bounces, or life will, on occasion, throw you a curveball. How you deal with the bad bounce or curveball pitch often determines how you handle adversity.
An apocryphal story has been told of a high school home run hitter who goes off to Major League spring training. After the first week, he tells his family back home, “Hey there. Pitchers are not so tough. I’m hitting .500 and may be starting in the infield.” After the third week, he communicates again, with less optimistic news: “Hey again. They started throwing curveballs. I’ll be home tomorrow!”
For an example closer to home, my 10-year-old son, Craig, was cut from a “major” baseball team that he wanted to join. Upon hearing the devastating news, he came home and shed a few tears and shared with his parents about how miserable the summer would be playing in a “minor” league.
I suggested that Craig write the coach a letter to thank him for giving him an opportunity to try out and for all the instruction he received during the month of try-outs. My son just sniffled and told me that he was only 10, and he couldn’t write that letter. That evening, I came home and found a letter that Craig wrote to the coach. Craig expressed his appreciation of the chance to make the team, and that he felt his baseball skills had improved as a result of working out with the good players and the coach. He also wished the coach and the team good luck, and that he would come around to cheer and root for them. Upon reading that letter, I awakened my son and congratulated him on hitting a home run.
The coach wrote to my son and told him that in his 15 years of coaching he had never received a letter from a player who made the team, let alone from a player who was cut. The coach also mentioned that Craig had class and character and that he would be a success both on and off the field, and that the coach encouraged him to try out again next year.
My message is that if a 10-year-old boy can say “thanks” when the coach says “no,” then all of us can say “thanks” for giving us a chance to show our services when the patient says “no.” I can assure you that, just like Craig’s coach, it will be the only thank you note or letter that they will receive from a physician when they don’t use your services.
Does this work? Yes, but not always. I recall a sales representative who called on me for several months and encouraged me to switch to her product, which was very similar to one that I had been using for nearly 15 years. She wrote me several notes, and each time said, “Thank you for seeing me and learning about my product.” Six months later she came in for a visit and gave me a laminated copy of an article that I wrote that appeared in a local medical publication. This small gesture got my undivided attention, and her kindness and persistence resulted in my changing a 15-year prescribing habit — all because of a few letters and a few dollars to have the article laminated.
As another example, when a medical manufacturing representative came for a visit, I told him that I used his competitor’s product and was satisfied with the product and the service. He said that he would continue to visit my office on a regular basis and would be available if the situation ever changed regarding the competitor’s product or service. After every visit, he sent a note of thanks and promised to come back in a month. After nearly 10 visits, he arrived just when a window of opportunity opened, and he was there to fill a void that was not being met by the competitor.
I recall seeing a patient who came to discuss surgery. He had visited with several other doctors in the community and decided to have his surgery elsewhere with another competent physician. When I heard he was in the hospital, I went by to visit him after surgery and wished him a speedy recovery. He called me several months later and thanked me for the visit and requested an appointment to see me concerning another health matter.
Would the patient have called if I didn’t stop by to visit? I don’t know. But let’s take a lesson from Craig and those salespeople, doctors, and anyone who has a service to offer, who said “Thanks for saying no.” If everyone said “yes” to all our proposals, presentations, or medical suggestions, we wouldn’t need doctors or salespeople. Certainly, one way to create a new patient is to thank those potential patients who say “no.” I can assure you that eventually this kind of response on your part will change “no’s” to “go’s.”
In baseball, striking out is the norm rather than the exception. A player who strikes out more than 50% of his times at bat can still be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Babe Ruth held the home run record with his 60 home runs in 1927. It is worth noting, however, that Babe Ruth also was known as the King of Strikeouts as well as the Sultan of Swat, as he accumulated 1330 strikeouts in his career and even led the American League in strikeouts five times.
Looking at more current baseball statistics, more than 5000 home runs were hit during the 2009 Major League baseball season. That same year, nearly 34,000 single hits took place. My take-home message is that there were seven times more singles than home runs. Let the truth be told that more games are won by singles than homers.
These statistics also apply to our medical careers. Not every marketing foray is going to be a home run. We can still be successful if we can consistently hit singles.
Let me provide a few examples of my marketing strikeouts. I was a young doctor just starting my practice in New Orleans, and the hospital public relations department arranged for me to give a luncheon program to a group at a senior citizens’ home. The topic I selected was “Evaluation and Treatment of Impotence.” I arrived as the men were pushed in their wheelchairs along with their oxygen canisters into the auditorium. It was readily apparent after the men were brought into the room that this was not a topic that would be of interest to this audience, who were probably more interested in fresh air than erections. I shifted gears and asked for a deck of cards and a piece of rope and did a few magic tricks which went over far better than any medical lecture. I had brought along a handout, which I gave to the aides and nursing staff at the senior citizens’ home, and was delighted to find that one of the women gave the material to her husband, who became a patient in the practice. Lesson learned: check out your audience before you give a presentation. Make sure your presentation is appropriate for the audience.
Here is another example: I joined a physician medical dispensing organization. I was promised thousands of dollars of ancillary income if I would consider dispensing medications in my office to my patients. I was told that many doctors’ offices are now adopting in-house pharmacies, often generating additional income with minimal investment. I had to invest significant dollars to purchase a large inventory of prescription drugs. I also had to dedicate space to the storage of the medication and had to purchase a special cabinet to secure the medications and avoid theft of the drugs. In addition, the process required additional staff time to distribute the medication to the patient and even more time to keep records to log in the medication with accurate records to the state organization overseeing drug dispensing and also accurate recording the medications in the patients’ charts. This was far from a windfall — more like a pratfall! It was a waste of my time and money. It was an example of a Babe Ruth strikeout. Lesson learned: I should do what I do best, and that is to see patients and focus on providing outstanding service to my existing patients, not look for added income in an area where I have little knowledge or experience.
Bottom Line: Life is going to throw curveballs, change-ups, and screwballs, and sometimes we might even get hit by a fast pitch. Healthcare is like that, with difficulties placed in our paths, but it requires us to be undiscouraged and still step up to the plate, put past performance behind us, and focus on the next pitch — or, in healthcare, the next obstacle. No one said it would be easy, but we all know it is worth the energy and the effort.