Pete Rose, the famous baseball player, and I have never met, but he taught me something so valuable that it changed my life.<\/p>\n
Pete was being interviewed in spring training the year he was about to break Ty Cobb\u2019s all time hits record. One reporter blurted out, \u201cPete, you only need 78 hits to break the record. How many at-bats do you think you\u2019ll need to get the 78 hits?\u201d<\/p>\n
Without hesitation, Pete just stared at the reporter and very matter-of- factly said, \u201c78.\u201d The reporter yelled back, \u201cAh, come on Pete, you don\u2019t expect to get 78 hits in 78 at-bats do you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Rose calmly shared his philosophy with the throngs of reporters who were anxiously awaiting his reply to this seemingly boastful claim. \u201cEvery time I step up to the plate, I expect to get a hit! If I don\u2019t expect to get a hit, I have no right to step in the batter\u2019s box in the first place!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go up hoping to get a hit,\u201d he continued, \u201cthen I probably don\u2019t have a prayer to get a hit. It is a positive expectation that has gotten me all of the hits in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I thought about Pete Rose\u2019s philosophy and how it applied to everyday life, I felt a little embarrassed. As a business person, I was hoping to make my sales quotas. As a father, I was hoping to be a good dad. As a married man, I was hoping to be a good husband.<\/p>\n
The truth was that I was an adequate salesperson, I was a not so bad father, and I was an okay husband. I immediately decided that being okay was not enough! I wanted to be a great salesperson, a great father and a great husband. I changed my attitude to one of positive expectation, and the results were amazing. I was fortunate enough to win a few sales trips, I won Coach of the Year in my son\u2019s baseball league and I share a loving relationship with my wife, Karen, with whom I expect to be married to for the rest of my life! Thanks, Mr. Rose!<\/p>\n
\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013
\nBy Barry Spilchuk from A Cup of Chicken Soup for the Soul Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk<\/p>\n
#626<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pete Rose, the famous baseball player, and I have never met, but he taught me something so valuable that it changed my life. Pete was being interviewed in spring training the year he was about to break Ty Cobb\u2019s all time hits record. One reporter blurted out, \u201cPete, you only need 78 hits to break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[698,1371,1373,1370,874,464,1372,1369,280,929],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}