Fail 7 out 10 times and you are truly extraordinary.

I am not a big baseball fan primarily because it requires a large time commitment to really follow any given team. A regular season schedule is 162 games played from April through October. That is 5-7 games per week over a 7 month period. If you are a starting player, you are going to bat on average about 3.5 times per game which corresponds to 500+ "at bats" over the course of a season. A batting average or relationship of hits to at bats is one of the defining benchmarks in the sport.  The absolute best lifetime batting average belongs to Ty Cobb at .367 while Derek Jeter is ranked 65th with a .317 average.

So what is the take away from all of this? If you ask a random person how they would characterize someone who fails 7 out of 10 times when they are doing their job expect to hear words like mediocre, loser or pathetic. But in Baseball, failing 7 out of 10 times at bat elevates you to one of the best of the best. So in baseball as in life, persistence and consistency rather than perfection is what ultimately determines success and defines a person's efforts. Go ahead, swing and miss -just make sure that you get back up to bat.