Andy Neary gives a short motivational talk using a baseball pitching metaphor—"avoid the crooked numbers"—to advise minimizing large losses and maintaining momentum. He draws a direct analogy to business: accept occasional losses but mitigate them to preserve long-term success, and emphasizes gratitude for the opportunity to "play the game" each day.
Chapters
So there's an age old phrase in pitching called avoid the crooked numbers. What does it mean? See, as a starting pitcher, your job is to keep your team in the game. And you have to do everything you can at all costs to avoid letting crooked numbers get up on the scoreboard. Avoid those 3, 4, 5 run innings from negatively impacting your team. Are you going to have losses? Are you going to give up runs? Absolutely. But do everything you can to keep it to the straight numbers and keep it to giving up no more than one run an inning. If you can do that, you're going to throw fewer pitches, you're going to last longer in the game, and you're going to give your team the chance to win in the long run. You see, momentum is a dangerous thing in baseball. As a pitcher, if momentum starts going against you, it can get out of control quickly. Right? Those balls start dropping in, the calls go against you. And if you're not sharp and clear up here, man, those losses can pile up quickly. Before you know it, you're out of the game and your team has lost. The same holds true in business. You need to avoid the crooked numbers from going up on the scoreboard. Do everything you can to mitigate your losses. Are you going to have bad days? Are you going to have losses? Are you going to give up runs? Absolutely. But you need to do everything you can every single day to mitigate them. Keep them to the straight numbers, avoid the crooked numbers. Because momentum can impact your business too. And if you're not careful, it can get out of control quickly. But here's the most important thing. Be grateful you get to play the game right. If you're in business right now, you work for a business, be grateful that you get the chance to get up, you're healthy, and you get to play the game every single day. Are there going to be days you lose the game? Absolutely. Are there going to be days you give up runs? Absolutely. But you know what? Tomorrow's a new day and you get to get back up and play the game all over again. So I hope you're grateful for that. I hope you value that chance we all have right now. Because folks, this is a long game. Nine innings is a long game in baseball. Business is a long game of life. So enjoy. Learn from your losses. Know you can't avoid them, but mitigate them. And wake up every single day to be grateful. You get to play the game all over again.
