The phrase ‘you’re one in a million,’ doesn’t hold the same water that it used to.
For math’s sake let’s say that the current population of the world is 8 billion people.
At that rate, if you’re ‘one in a million,’ that just means you’re in the top eight thousand.
That doesn’t roll of the tongue nearly as well.
“Hey friend, you did great, you’re in the top eight thousand of people…to me…I think.”
That’s a heck of a compliment.
It also means that being one in a billion isn’t enough either.
That just means you’re in a smaller group.
In baseball, if you bat a thousand, you’re perfect at the plate.
Nobody is celebrated in baseball for being perfect.
Nobody.
That’s because if you are perfect at the plate, it probably means you were only ever at bat one single time.
That’s not an achievement.
That’s a gimmick.
If you get a hit 1 third of the time in that sport, you’re a hall of famer.
One…third.
How does that measure up to your life?
If you claim to be knocking everything out of the park all of the time, you’re either:
- lying to yourself an everyone around you
- not paying attention at all to your tasks
- or in the wrong business entirely.
In order to accrue wins that matter, you can’t always win.
It’s a simple truth that you can’t think yourself out of a box if you’re never in one.
Both victory and defeat are suffered through the agony of achievement.
Fear of failure is the deafening voice of self-doubt.
Don’t worry about being one in a million, or even a billion.
Focus on being the one of one that you are, and get your work done the best way you know how…by battling.
Battling one thousand doesn’t mean you win them all.
It means you grit your teeth and toe the line with tenacity, every…single…time.
Be that sort of leader.
Be that sort of teammate.
Be that sort of artist.