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How Can You Pull Success Out Of Failure?

29 Dec 2023 · 1 min

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A first-person anecdote by Andy Neary recounting being released from minor-league baseball one day before a promotion and reflecting on how that failure taught him that to 'play bigger' you need a major-league mindset: a blend of competence, confidence, and decisive action. The clip centers on loss of a childhood dream and a lasting lesson about mindset and preparation.

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Instead of getting jacked up, instead of playing bigger, my mind listened to the crowd. It said, yeah, who am I? I'm 5 foot 9, not 5 foot 6. I don't have an overpowering arm. I wasn't a high draft pick. What right do I to have to stand on this mound and face and risk tours because I'm average? Who's been there before? Sucks, doesn't it? So I finished out that summer in Helena. I actually got transferred over to Ogden, Utah. And the next spring training, I went back. And on the last day of spring training, I got released. I got cut. Now, get this. The day I was cut, I was one day removed from breaking camp and going to spend the summer pitching in Bloyt, Wisconsin, with The bloit snappers. 50 miles from where I grew up. I was three promotions away from pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers, 30 miles from my hometown. You talk about a childhood dream gone. It's over. And when I look back at that day that I was released, I learned a lesson that will stick with me for the rest of my life. If you want to play bigger, you have got to have a major league mindset. And having a major league mindset requires having the right mix of competence and confidence mixed with one hell of a course of action.